Lacrimation is an irregular symptom, sometimes very troublesome and sometimes well tolerated. Some patients are easy to cure, while others with the same history resist all treatment.
When a patient presents himself to the ophthalmologist complaining of lacrimation it is the prognosis which is most difficult to make. The lacrimation may be cured with a single probing, or it may not be relieved after several probings and a long course of treatment. Often lacrimation of several months' or years' standing yields to the first probing, while that of only a few days' duration resists prolonged treatment. Slight lacrimation may even be aggravated by the simplest and most prudent explorations.
The means of exploration, aside from irrigation and probing, such as roentgenography and rhinologic examination, seldom afford more information for the prognosis. This is due, probably, to the fact that the arrangement of the lacrimal passages allows the development of