ReviewPain medicine (Malden, Mass.)2016
Burning Eye Syndrome: Do Neuropathic Pain Mechanisms Underlie Chronic Dry Eye?
Review in Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Is gabapentin effective in dry eye disease and neuropathic ocular pain?Acta neurologica Belgica · 2021Trial
- Comparison Between Viscous Teardrops and Saline Solution to Fill Orthokeratology Contact Lenses Before Overnight Wear.Eye & contact lens · 2018Trial
- Pathological mechanisms of Sjögren's disease-related dry eye: from multiglandular dysfunction to ocular surface inflammation.International ophthalmology · 2026Review
- Current and Developing Therapeutics for Dry Eye Disease: Targeting Ion Channels.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- The role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) inJournal of dental sciences · 2025Article
- Randomized controlled trial on corneal denervation, neuroinflammation and ocular surface in corneal lenticule extraction for advanced refractive correction (CLEAR) and small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE).Eye and vision (London, England) · 2025Article
- Psychometric validation of the Chronic Ocular Pain Questionnaire (COP-Q).Journal of patient-reported outcomes · 2025Observational
- High Prevalence of Small-Fiber Neuropathy in Patients with Tarlov Cysts: Toward a More Comprehensive Clinical Understanding.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- Corneal Neuropathic Pain: A Patient and Physician Perspective.Ophthalmology and therapy · 2024Article
- Neuropathic Corneal Pain after Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infection.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Qualitative Research to Understand the Patient Experience and Evaluate Content Validity of the Chronic Ocular Pain Questionnaire (COP-Q).Ophthalmology and therapy · 2024Article
- Influencing factors of ocular pain in dry eye disease patients at high altitude.International journal of ophthalmology · 2024Article
- Clinical associations of corneal neuromas with ocular surface diseases.Neural regeneration research · 2024Review
- COVID-19-Related Burning Eye Syndrome and Burning Mouth Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Pain and therapy · 2023Review
- Exploratory Study on Central Sensitization and Bioelectrical Activity of the Selected Masticatory Muscles in Subjects with Myopia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Clinical Neuroimaging of Photophobia in Individuals With Chronic Ocular Surface Pain.American journal of ophthalmology · 2023Article
- Factors affecting the prevalence, severity, and characteristics of ocular surface pain.Expert review of ophthalmology · 2023Article
- Botulinum toxin A decreases neural activity in pain-related brain regions in individuals with chronic ocular pain and photophobia.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Successful reversal of neuropathic eye pain by treatment of occult ocular surface disease: Case series and implications.American journal of ophthalmology case reports · 2022Article
- Corneal sub-basal nerve plexus microneuromas in individuals with and without dry eye.The British journal of ophthalmology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDry eye is a multi-factorial disorder that manifests with painful ocular symptoms and visual disturbances, which can only be partly attributed to tear dysfunction. This disorder may also involve neuroplasticity in response to neuronal injury. This review will emphasize the key characteristics of dry eye pain and its pathologic mechanisms, making the argument that a subset of dry eye represents a neuropathic pain disorder of the eye, more appropriately called "burning eye syndrome."
methodsA literature review was conducted using a PubMed search focusing on dry eye, corneal nociception, and neuropathic pain. Articles were reviewed and those discussing clinical course, pathophysiology, and neuronal regulation of chronic ocular pain as related to dry eye were summarized.
resultsWe found that there is a discordance between ocular pain and dryness on the ocular surface. Although tear dysfunction may be one of the initial insults, its persistence may be associated with repeated ocular sensory nerve injury leading to an acute-to-chronic pain transition associated with neuropathologic changes (peripheral and central sensitization), neuronal dysfunction, and spontaneous ocular pain.
conclusionDry eye is becoming a major health concern due to its increasing incidence, significant morbidity, and economic burden. Recent evidence suggests that a subset of dry eye may be better represented as a chronic neuropathic pain disorder due to its features of dysesthesia, spontaneous pain, allodynia, and hyperalgesia. Future therapies targeted at the underlying neuroplasticity may yield improved efficacy for patients with this subset of dry eye, which we term "burning eye syndrome."
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.