blocked tear duct

I'm thinking of having surgery to unblock a tear duct, and there is some literature out there that says that folks with cpap come up with some problems after the surgery, which is called dacryocystorhinostomy. Anybody know any cpapers who have this surgery and had problems, or no problems?

You want to be certain the surgeon has worked on cpap patients and will share the outcomes with you.

Thanks, CF, I have that on my list.

herefishy wrote:I'm thinking of having surgery to unblock a tear duct

Seems strange to me since I had punctal plugs installed to block the ducts. This was because I had a very aggravating case of dry eyes. For me, the punctal plugs have been nearly 100% effective in preventing dry eyes.

What type of problems are you having that makes you consider this surgery?

I have had excess tearing for a year or so, and my opthalmologist checked that the tear duct wasn't blocked last fall, but now I have an infection in the (not really tear duct, the nasolacrimal duct, the drainage) duct, which he says is from the tears not draining away fast enough. He said originally the excess tearing was from dry eye, and I'm not going to just willy nilly get this questionable surgery, just investigating.

If the nasolacrimal duct is too open, it can cause problems for CPAPers because air will leak out of your nose into the eye when you're doing CPAP.

I'd be really cautious about having surgery to open the duct if you use CPAP.

I'd be really skeptical if the doctor wanting to do the surgery says it's OK. You need to be sure that your new nasolacrimal duct will still block airflow from the nose into the eye.

Thanks, we'll have a long talk about this.

archangle wrote:If the nasolacrimal duct is too open, it can cause problems for CPAPers because air will leak out of your nose into the eye when you're doing CPAP.

That is a good point. I remember some members posting here about CPAP doing that very thing!