BLEPHARITIS
Video Transcription:
Blepharitis is an inflammation of the eyelid, which affects mostly children and oftentimes, these children who are in the pediatric age come to the ophthalmologist with crusting at the base of the eyelashes. They appear swollen with red eye and eyelids. Scratch marks are present from continuous scratching that further irritate the eye.
In cases like this, the child can be astigmatic, so it is the first alarm to investigate. The child with blepharitis should be accepted in the clinic and given atropine or cyclopentolate. These substances serve to block the ability to focus in order to determine the visual defect that the child has because blepharitis can be a symptom of a hidden visual defect.
On the other hand, in adults, blepharitis is associated with general pathologies. We speak of intestinal pathologies, sometimes poor digestion and mostly is associated with a pathology of the Meibomian glands.
These are the glands that are at the base of the eyelashes and serve to produce the fatty part of tears. They can become inflamed, may malfunction and therefore the symptoms are those of having small crusts at the base of the eyelashes with redness and itch.
This is the clinical picture of blepharitis, which is always difficult to completely eradicate even if gauze and anything else are given to try to alleviate the symptoms. It tends to be chronic and therefore it is a pathology with which the patient usually has to live with.
The ophthalmologist may ally with dermatologists because it is a borderline pathology between ophthalmology and dermatology and is complex in its pathogenesis. However, the difficulty to completely eradicate it remains.
A new frontier is the treatment of blepharitis with pulsed light, which arises from the treatment of dry eye but is also very effective in cases of blepharitis.
