A man accidentally fell and broke his tear duct. After more than three months, he finally stopped crying.

"It's really embarrassing for a grown man to be in tears all day long." On November 28, Mr. Pan, who was about to be discharged from the hospital after surgery, said happily that he would never "cry" again.

Mr. Pan, 45 years old, is from Shiyan, Hubei. More than three months ago, he suffered a right eye socket fracture and tear duct rupture due to an accidental fall. After the orbital repair surgery, Mr. Pan was in tears all day and could not see clearly because of the tear duct rupture. He went to many hospitals and was told that the tear duct ruptured for too long, the operation was very difficult, and the success rate was not high.

Later, Mr. Pan came to the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University. After seeing him, Director Zhang Jiang of the hospital's tear duct/eye and nose department said: Because the tear duct has been broken for too long, it is extremely difficult to find the two ends of the break, and the difficulty of the operation is indeed relatively high. Although tear duct anastomosis surgery is more difficult than tear duct reconstruction surgery, it is better than the latter in terms of cost and recovery. We will try our best to find the broken ends for tear duct anastomosis surgery. If it doesn't work, tear duct reconstruction surgery can be used as an alternative.

Director Zhang Jiang is anastomosing a patient's ruptured lacrimal duct. Photo by correspondent Pei Nishang

After hearing that there was a way to treat it, Mr. Pan breathed a sigh of relief and immediately checked into the hospital. On November 22, after a 4-hour operation, Director Zhang Jiang and Doctor Wu Mingbo finally found the broken end of Mr. Pan's tear duct and successfully repaired it.

On the second day after the operation, although the gauze had not been removed, Mr. Pan could feel that there were no more tears in his injured right eye.

"The tear canaliculus is extremely small, with a diameter of only 0.4 to 0.8 mm, and is very fragile. Canaliculus rupture is usually caused by trauma such as traffic accidents and accidental scratches, which injures and tears the eyelid skin, leading to tearing of the tear canaliculus. After rupture, the tear canaliculus will also heal abnormally, so surgery must be performed as soon as possible." Director Zhang Jiang reminded the public that once there is an eye injury, they should be sent to a specialist hospital for a detailed examination in time to avoid missing the best time for treatment.