Ablution exercise – may prevent dacryocystitis

Background: Dacryocystitis is an infection and inflammation of the lacrimal sac and most common cause of ocular morbidity in India. It’s accounting for 87.1% of epiphora and causes social discomfort due to continuous watering from the eyes. It is more common in India as being tropical country. It has higher incidence among lower socioeconomic status. Hygiene plays an important role in its aetiology. Objective: This study was aimed to survey the demographic characteristics of patients received external dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) surgery to correlate with religious aspect of the patients. Material & Methods: The present study is a retrospective study conducted at Ophthalmology Department from the hospital records of patients who underwent external DCR for epiphora from January 2013 to December 2017. Results: Out of 305 cases underwent DCR (n=305), maximum (n=179, 58.69%) were above the age of 40 years out of which maximum were in age group of 41-50 years (n=78, 24.57%), majority of them were females 70.49% (n=215) with males being only 29.51% (n=90). Out of 305 cases majority were Hindus (n=236, 77.38%) with Muslims being only 14.43%(n=44) while 8.19% included Christians, Sikhs, Jains and other religions. Conclusion: Overall finding showed in comparisons of men with the females of middle age and above and Muslims despite contributing to major population had less rate of DCR surgery than Hindus. This led to our view that some practices in Muslims might be preventing dacryocystitis in Muslims where ablution exercise might be one of them.