PUBLICATION EXCLUSIVE: Pediatric dry eye disease: The next generation dry eye patient is already here

When you think about dry eye, whether or not you treat dry eye, there is a certain image that jumps to mind. For some of you, it is the classic image of an older patient gently rocking in a chair on the porch with his nose buried in a Zane Grey novel. After an hour or two, he starts to squint, rub his eyes, dab his cheekbones and then eventually quit as his eyes become drier with each turn of the page. Others among you, likely those who have done some dry eye treatment in the Age of Restasis, have a picture of the classic Allergan archetype pop-up: a woman between the ages of 35 and 60 years who has dryness, scratchiness and generally miserable feeling eyes. At SkyVision, we know her as Linda Blair.

Those of you who are newer to the community of DED docs in this new Age of Xiidra (welcome aboard, Steve Lane!) have their antennae up and are on the lookout for patients who spend lots of time in front of some kind of computer screen. The combination of increased screen time of all types and the endless folly of the USDA dietary recommendations has created a whole new class of DED patients. The “poster child” for this group is the Millennial living the so-called “multi-screen” life both at work and at play. What you probably do not think of, however, is the pediatric age group.

The reality is that if you take care of kids, you are soon to be a pediatric DED doc.

Pediatric dry eye disease

To be sure, there have always been kids who have suffered from some type of dry eye, but they have been rather few and somewhat far between. These kids often had something else going on. Perhaps it was severe allergies with dryness resulting from very aggressive antihistamine use. Atopic conjunctivitis quite often caused a type of dry eye. In cases such as these, we are able to identify a discrete underlying cause that we can either treat or simply wait out. The primary pediatric DED patient was a bit of a unicorn in all but the most specialized clinics. Sadly, this is no longer the case.

Click here to read the full publication exclusive, The Dry Eye, published in Ocular Surgery News U.S. Edition, January 25, 2017.