Clinicopathological study of lacrimal sac specimens obtained during DCR.

PURPOSE: To determine the histopathologic characteristics of lacrimal sac specimens in adult patients undergoing external dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) for acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction.

METHODS

A total of 471 lacrimal sac biopsies were obtained from 449 patients undergoing external DCR for symptoms or signs of acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction and examined histopathologically.

RESULTS

A total of 449 subjects including 283 (63%) female and 166 (37%) male subjects with mean age of 50.02 years underwent DCR and histopathologic examination of specimens. Presenting symptoms were epiphora in 411 patients (91%), history of acute dacryocystitis in 17 patients (4%) and obstruction revealed during ophthalmic examinations in 21 patients (5%). Histopathologic findings included: chronic inflammation in 450 patients (95.5%), fibrosis in 18 patients (3.8%), lymphoma in two patients (0.4%) and reactive lymphoid hyperplasia in one patient (0.2%). Lacrimal sac appearance during surgery was grossly abnormal in two cases: one case of lymphoma and one instance of reactive lymphoid hyperplasia.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronic inflammation and fibrosis are the most common histopathologic findings in lacrimal sac specimens obtained during DCR. Only two cases of lymphoma (0.4%) were encountered in the series, one of which had a suspicious lacrimal sac appearance during surgery while the other case (0.2% of all specimens) was unsuspected. The rate of malignant etiology for NLD obstruction is low enough to justify lacrimal sac biopsy only in suspicious cases.