Long-term patient satisfaction of external dacryocystorhinostomy.

Purpose: To evaluate patient's opinion on the long-term success of external dacryocystorhinostomy using the same quantitative parameter pre- and postoperatively.

Methods: A postal questionnaire was sent to 139 patients who had undergone external dacryocystorhinostomy. The only parameter for success of the treatment was the improvement of patient's subjective pre- and postoperative symptoms score. The duration of this follow-up ranged from 1 year up to 5 years postoperatively. Statistical analyses were performed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test and the chi2 test.

Results: According to the patient's own evaluation, external dacryocystorhinostomy is a successful operation. After 1 year the success percentage was 89%, after 2-3 years it was 79% and after 4-5 years it was 71%.

Conclusion: External dacryocystorhinostomy is appreciated by the patients and considered a successful operation. The subjective evaluation of this operation should yield more creditability than objective methods.