Thermal Pulsation Treatment for Meibomian Gland Dysfunction
Narrative Responses:
Purpose
To evaluate the effectiveness of the LipiFlow System (TearScience, Inc.) in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD).
Methods
Patients received a 12-minute LipiFlow treatment to both eyes and were reexamined at least one month after the treatments. In each of the examinations the following parameters were tested: number of secreting meibomian glands (MG), infrared evaluation of the MG, corneal evaluation with lissamine green and fluorescein, tear break-up time (TBUT) and osmolarity, lipid layer thickness of the tear film and dry eye symptoms (Questionnaire).
Results
Thirty eight eyes of 19 consecutive patients were enrolled. Eight patients (42.11%) noted significant improvement in their dry eye symptoms post-treatment in both eyes and 9 patients did not notice any significant difference. There was no statistically significant difference pre- and post-treatment in the TBUT, osmolarity, number of active MG’s, lipid layer thickness and lissamine green grading.The average lipid layer thickness, pre-treatment, of patients that had an improvement in their dry eye symptoms was significantly higher compared to those whose symptoms did not improve. Most of the patients who did not feel any improvement had evidence of atrophy in the meibomian gland tomogram.
Conclusion
The LipiFlow System was effective in half of the patients with MGD. Further randomized controlled studies are needed in order to better define the group of patients that may benefit the most from this treatment modality.