An audit of 3-snip procedures performed at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To assess the functional outcome of three-snip punctoplasty procedure for punctal stenosis at a tertiary care hospital. Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi, and comprised medical records of all patients aged >18 years who underwent three-snip punctoplasty between January 2013 and December 2017. Data was retrieved on age, gender, diagnosis, signs and symptoms, laterality, date of procedure, resolution of symptoms post-procedure, date of last eye followup, symptoms at last follow-up, functional outcome (epiphora at 1 month). SPSS 20 was used for data analysis. Results: Of the 30 patients, 22(73.3%) were females. Overall mean age at the time of punctoplasty was 57.5±15.57 years. Of all the cases, 17(56.7%) had undergone bilateral puntoplasty. At one month, 20(66.7%) patients were completely symptom-free. Females had better results than males but the difference was not significant (p=0.078). Conclusion: Three-snip punctoplasty was found to be a minimally invasive procedure with good functional outcome that was comparable to other procedures.