To compare surgical results of two patient groups with punctal obstruction. One group underwent punctoplasty while the other group underwent silicone tube intubation.

We compared postoperatively 48 eyes of 37 patients with punctal obstruction within and after one year of the procedure. 24 eyes of 17 patients had punctoplasty and 24 eyes of 20 patients had silicone tube intubation by the same surgeon.

Upon follow-up within one year after the punctoplasty, 13 eyes (54%) showed no epiphora, nine eyes (38%) showed intermittent epiphora, and two eyes (8%) showed persistent epiphora. However, after silicone tube intubation, 20 eyes (83%) showed no epiphora, three eyes (13%) showed intermittent epiphora, and one eye (4%) showed persistent epiphora. Over one year after the punctoplasty, one eye (4%) showed no epiphora, 19 eyes (78%) showed intermittent epiphora, and four eyes (17%) showed persistent epiphora. However, after the silicone tube intubation, 17 eyes (71%) showed no epiphora, six eyes (25%) showed intermittent epiphora, and one eye (4%) showed persistent epiphora.

Silicone tube intubation is more effective than punctoplasty in the long term treatment of punctal obstruction.