Table 6. Schirmer Test in Eyes with Pterygium Pre-excision vs. Post-excision.

The majority of studies demonstrated improvement in Schirmer values after pterygium excision. However, only two studies found this improvement to be statistically significant. The results seemed to be independent of surgical technique. Additionally, the majority of studies did not specify eyelid position during the tests.

	Year	Author	n = No. patients, No. eyes	Surgical Technique	Follow-up Period (m)	Results post-surgery	Eyelid position
Schirmer I Test
	2020	Zhao et al.⁽¹²⁾	n = 35, 40	Limbal-conjunctival autograft	1, 3	Improvement	O
	2020	Patkar et al.⁽¹³⁾	n = 100, 200	Limbal-conjunctival autograft	10d, 1, 2	Improvement	O
	2019	Li et al.⁽¹⁷⁾	n = 108, 108	Limbal-conjunctival autograft	1, 3, 6	Improvement	C
	2019	Jeong et al.⁽⁵⁾	n = 30, 30	Conjunctival autograft	1, 3	Improvement^†	U
	2017	Drvmvrvprasadarao et al.⁽⁴⁰⁾	n = 80, 80	Conjunctival autograft	3, 12, 18	Improvement¹	U
	2017	Mittal et al.⁽⁴¹⁾	n = 43, 43	Conjunctival autograft	6	Improvement	U
	2016	Julio et al.⁽⁴²⁾	n = 32, 32	Limbal-conjunctival autograft	1	No Improvement	U
	2013	Türkyılmaz et al.⁽⁴⁵⁾	n = 74, 74	Dissociated edges of conjunctiva sutured together	3, 12, 18	Improvement¹	U
	2009	Dong et al.⁽⁴⁸⁾	n = 12, 12	Not Reported	1	Improvement²	U
	2007	Li et al.⁽⁴⁹⁾	n = 70, 70	Bare-sclera	1	Not Reported	U
Basic Secretion Test
	2015	Kampitak et al.⁽⁴⁴⁾	n = 40, 40	Amniotic membrane graft	1	Improvement^†	U
	2006	Kiliç et al.⁽⁵⁰⁾	n = 14, 14	Limbal-conjunctival autograft	1, 6	Improvement³	U
Schirmer II Test
	2020	Patkar et al.⁽¹³⁾	n = 100, 200	Limbal-conjunctival autograft	10d, 1, 2	Improvement	O
	2017	Mittal et al.⁽⁴¹⁾	n = 43, 43	Conjunctival autograft	6	Improvement	U
Unspecified
	2017	Wang et al.⁽⁵¹⁾	n = 56, 56	Conjunctival autograft	1d, 1w, 1, 6	Improvement	U
	2011	Wang et al.⁽⁴⁷⁾	n = 60, 60	Limbal-conjunctival autograft	1	No difference	U

m = months, d = days, w = weeks, O = open, C = closed, U = unspecified

^†

Statistically significant

Not significant for both no recurrence of pterygium and recurrence of pterygium

Study included pingueculum only

1m: No improvement, 6m: Improvement