Patients are increasingly interested in nondrug therapies for conditions in general, and eye care is no exception. Industry, patients and providers are always on the lookout for the next “paradigm shift.”
In July 2017, the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) Dry Eye Workshop II (DEWS II) report was published. This extensive 2-year literature review resulted in a several-hundred-page report updating several aspects of the group’s landmark 2007 report.
In the classification of dry eye disease (DED), the report states that pathophysiology is a continuum in which both aqueous-deficient dry eye (ADDE) and evaporative dry eye (EDE) exist, and patients will have elements of both. Epidemiological and clinical evidence suggest that the preponderance of DED is evaporative in nature (EDE). ADDE affects lacrimal gland function, and EDE is recognized to include both lid- and blink-related causes (meibomian gland dysfunction) and ocular surface-related causes.