Ocular fatigue is the major symptom of dry eye

ABSTRACT A total of 524 consecutive new patients (195 male, 329 female, 434±208 yo) were evaluated for the presence of ocular fatigue and/or dry eye Dry eye was diagnosed based on our criteria, which included symptoms, vital staining, break‐up time (BUT) measurement, and the Schirmer test Among all the patients, 212% (111/524) reported symptoms of ocular fatigue and 153% (80/524) were diagnosed as having dry eye with symptoms Of the 111 patients who complained of ocular fatigue, 514% (57/111) had dry eye, which was significantly higher than the 153% for the entire group (p<0001) Additionally, 713% (57/80) of dry eye patients with symptoms complained of ocular fatigue, which was also significantly higher than the 212% among all patients (p<0001) Dry eye patients had a greater number of complaints (43±21 per patient) compared to controls (19±13 per patient) (p<0001) These findings suggest that there is a strong relation between ocular fatigue and dry eye