To determine the prognostic factors associated with surgical time of endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR).

From April 2009 to June 2014, 66 eyes of 66 patients who underwent endonasal DCR for 5-year periods were retrospectively evaluated with regard to surgical time and several other factors. The factors were patient factors (age, sex), category of diagnosis (inflammation and non-inflammation), and systemic factors (diabetes mellitus [DM], hypertension [HTN], anticoagulant agents, sinusitis history). We divided the study period into three subperiods and compared their surgical time. The anatomical factor of thickness of the maxillary frontal process was evaluated by computed tomography (CT), as was the existence of symptom recurrence after surgery and reoperation according to surgical time. A total of 66 cases (right: 31, left: 35) were included. Any case with concurrent surgery, abnormal structure of the nasal cavity, or bilateral DCR was excluded.

Average surgical time was 49.95 minutes. Surgical time of endonasal DCR was short in inflammatory cases ( p = 0.047), in the third surgical period ( p = 0.001), and was correlated with thickness of the maxillary frontal process ( p = 0.001). In addition, surgical time correlated with the existence of symptom recurrence after surgery and reoperation ( p = 0.012).

It is considered that surgeon skill affects surgical time, and the thickness of the maxillary frontal process by CT will aid in the prediction of surgical time and success rate of endonasal DCR.