Abstract: To study the changes of tear film following cataract operations in highly senile patients. Methods60 eyes of the senile group(48 senile age-related cataract patients over 80 years old) had undergone cataract surgeries. 60 eyes (54 senile patients with age-related cataract) served as the control group. The subjective complaints of dry eye, break-up time(BUT), schirmmer Ⅰtest(SIt) and fluorescence integral(FI) were determined before and after cataract operations at different times(pre-operation and post-operation 1d, 3d, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months). Results① Subjective complaints of dry eye and the mean scores of fluorescence integral within 3 months after the operations were significantly increased compared with those before the operations. 1 week after the operations, the mean breakup time in the senile group was greatly decreased and the schirmmer I test were greatly increased, and 1 month after the operations the FL scores were greatly increased（P＜0.05）. The BUT, SIt and scores of FL in the control group were all significantly changed 1 week and 1 month after the operations. ② BUT and SIt were more significantly decreased in the senile group than in the control group. The senile group needed more time to recover after the operations. ConclusionCataract surgeries have effect on the stability of tear film especially for senile age-related patients.

Key words: Senile, Tear film , Age-related cataract