A prospective study comparing mini-invasive and conventional canaliculotomy of punctum-sparing canaliculotomy for primary canaliculitis treatment

Purpose To compare outcomes of mini-invasive canaliculotomy with those of conventional canaliculotomy conducted using the punctum-sparing approach for the treatment of primary canaliculitis. Methods A prospective, comparative, and interventional case series study was conducted on 118 individuals with unilateral inferior primary canaliculitis. These patients were randomly divided into two groups, each with 59 cases. Group A underwent mini-invasive canaliculotomy (minor incision ~3 mm), whereas group B received conventional canaliculotomy (long incision ~6–8 mm). Punctum-sparing and canaliculus-reconstructing procedure was used to treat all patients. Both groups had silicone tube intubations and were retained in the lacrimal passages for one month. Both groups’ surgical success rates and postoperative complications were measured at the last follow-up of 12 months after surgery. Results A total of 108 patients were finally included in the study, 53 in group A and 55 in group B. There were 79 females and 29 males with a median age of 57 ± 13.4 years. The anatomical success rates for groups A and B were 96.2% and 92.7% ( P = 0.679), respectively. Functional success rate was accomplished by considerably more patients in group A (50/53, 94.3%) compared to group B (45/55, 81.8%) ( P = 0.046). No recurrences were seen during follow-up visits in any of the participants. Conclusions The two procedures employed in this study to treat primary canaliculitis achieves excellent clinical effects with no incidence of recurrence. The mini-invasive canaliculotomy is worthy to be recommended for its higher functional success rate with mini-invasion of canaliculus and intact lacrimal punctum.