Objective To analyze the characteristics of dry eye syndrome in viral hepatitis patients.Methods Two hundred and ninety-two patients with viral hepatitis,including 253 cases of hepatitis B,39 cases of hepatitis C visited our department of ophthalmology and were enrolled in this study.All patients received eye examination and liver function tests,including medical history,slit lamp examination,corneal fluorescein staining,tear film break-up time (BUT) and schirmer test,alanine aminotransferase (ALT),total bilirubin (TBil),albumin (ALB).Results In the 292 cases of viral hepatitis,there were 208 dry eye cases and 84 non-dry eye cases.In 169 male cases,119 cases had dry eyes; in 123 femalecases,89 cases were with dry eyes.In the dry eyes group and non-dry eyes group,the ages were 47 ± 12 and 44 ± 13 years old,respectively.The median values of alanine aminotransferase was 37.61U l-1 and 27.3U l-1; the median values of total bilirubin were 25.26umol· l-1 and 15.35umolⅠ·l-1 and albumin values were 41.81 ±6.49g l-1,43.56 ± 4.59g l-1.There were statistics difference in age,total bilirubin and albumin values between dry eye and non-dry eye groups.In the 208 hepatitis B patients,85.10％ showed dry eye (177 cases) ; 14.90％ of the 31 hepatitis C cases had dry eyes.There was no significant difference between the prevalence of dry eye syndrome in hepatitis B and hepatitis C viral hepatitis patients.There was no significant difference in Schirmer I test and BUT between different types of viral hepatitis.Ages and total bilirubin values were the correlation factors in viral hepatitis and dry eye.Conclusions Viral hepatitis patients with dry eye syndrome has its own characteristics,including high incidence of dry eyes in patients with viral hepatitis.Dry eye has no correlation with gender.There was no significant difference of dry eye syndrome in hepatitis B and hepatitis C patients.Age and total bilirubin values correlated with viral hepatitis and dry eye.