The role of oral antioxidant supplementation in treatment of dry eye following phacoemulsification

Background Dry eye after uneventful phacoemulsification has been a common cause for patients’ dissatisfaction, despite good visual outcome. Tear film instability after cataract extraction has been attributed to multiple intraoperative and postoperative causes. Oral antioxidants have been proposed to decrease the objective and subjective symptoms of dry eye. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of oral antioxidant supplementation on dry eye after phacoemulsification. Patients and methods This is a randomized controlled clinical case series study that included 60 eyes of 60 patients. They were divided into two groups: group 1 was treated with oral antioxidants after surgery, whereas group 2 was not treated with oral antioxidants. The study was conducted at the Ophthalmology Department of Menoufia University Hospital in the period between January 2018 and January 2019. Follow-up for those patients were done by Schirmer’s test 1, break-up time test, and ocular surface disease index questionnaire preoperatively and at 1, 2, and 3 months postoperatively to evaluate oral antioxidant supplementation effect on dry eye after surgery. Results Three months after oral antioxidant supplementation following phacoemulsification, statistically significant differences (P