Abstract: Objective  To review and analyse the clinical characteristics of dry eyes. Design Retrospective case series. Participants A total of 247 new outpatients (494 eyes) with dry eyes who visited in Linyi People Hospital from Oct. 2010 to Dec. 2011 were included. Methods The clinical records of the participants were reviewed and some dry eye tests were performed, including slit-lamp examination, corneal fluorescein staining test, tear break-up time (BUT) and basal Schirmer Ι test (SΙt). Make sure of excluding other ocular diseases, the definition of the dry eyes were: (1) BUT≤5 s, and had one of the positive subjective symptoms; (2) 5 s＜BUT≤10 s, and had one of the positive subjective symptoms, and SΙt ≤5 mm; (3) BUT≤10 s, and had one of the positive subjective symptoms, and positive fluorescein staining of cornea. Clinical types of dry eyes were including aqueous tear deficiency, meibomian gland dysfunction(MGD), and mixed type. Main Outcome Measures The positive subjective symptoms, corneal fluorescein staining test, BUT and SΙt. Results On analyzing the main complaints of 247 patients (mean age 29.32±14.28 years; range 13~78 years, the ratio of male and female was 1:1.25.) , the most common complaints were asthenopia (182 cases, 73.68%) and ocular dryness (174 cases, 70.45%), then followed by ocular itching (171 cases, 69.23%), foreign body sensation (159 cases, 64.37%), red eye (150 cases, 60.73%),  impairment of vision (144 cases, 58.30%) , photophobia /lacrimation (116 cases, 46.96%) and ophthalmalgia (97 cases, 39.27%). Among the 247 cases, 114 cases (46.15%) were aged 30~44 years and 73 cases (29.55%) aged 18~29 years. 170 cases (68.83%) were aqueous tear deficiency, whose mean age was 26.14±10.19 years; 56 cases (22.67%) were MGD,  whose mean age was 36.30±8.26 years; 21 cases were mixed type, whose mean age was 50.23±9.28 years(F=2.84, P<0.001). Conclusion The clinical manifestations of dry eyes are diversely. Dry eyes may occurred in any age, more and more young people were diagnosed as dry eyes with computers and TV used extensively in the life and works. And the most common clinical type is the aqueous tear deficiency.

Key words: dry eye/diagnosis, clinical manifestations