A total of 280 patients (358 eyes) were included in the study. Of the 358 eyes, 194 rhinostomies were alcove-shaped, 157 were cavern-shaped, and 7 were concealed cavern-shaped. There were no patients with flat-shaped rhinostomies. The nasal cavity was wider in patients in the alcove group than those in the cavern and concealed cavern groups (
p = 0.012). The mean time to tube removal was longest in the concealed cavern group (
p = 0.029). There were no significant differences in anatomical success rates among the three groups (
p = 0.338). With regard to functional success for patients with anatomically patent DCR, the cavern and concealed cavern groups had significantly poorer results than the alcove group (
p = 0.001). Functional success rates were 91.6 %, 84.8 %, and 57.1 % for the alcove, cavern, and concealed cavern groups, respectively. Development of postoperative granuloma was more frequent in the concealed cavern group (85.7 %) than in the alcove (29.3 %) or cavern groups (26.1 %) (
p= 0.003). Multiple logistic regression models for surgical outcome showed that rates of functional failure after EDCR were influenced by patient age and rhinostomy shape (odds ratio 1.824,
p = 0.045 for age; odds ratio = 9.605,
p = 0.000 for rhinostomy shape) (Table
5).