Blepharitis is characterized by inflammation, scaling, reddening, and crusting of the eyelid.
Signs and symptoms:
When you have blepharitis, oil and bacteria coat your eyelids near the base of your eyelashes. This can cause:
- Redness, irritation, and tearing of your eyelids
- Swollen, tender eyelids
- Blurred vision
- Itching around your eyelashes
- Greasy flakes or scales around your eyelashes
- Hard crusts at the base of your eyelashes. These crusts may cause your eyelashes to fall out.
Flakes or crusts can form during the night. If this happens, it may be hard for you to open your eyes in the morning.
Associated Symptoms:
- Watery eyes – due to excessive tearing.
- Red eyes – due to dilated blood vessels on the sclera.
- Swollen eyelids – due to inflammation.
- Crusting at the eyelid margins/base of the eyelashes/medial canthus, generally worse on waking – due to excessive bacterial buildup along the lid margins.
- Eyelid sticking – due to crusting along the eyelid margin.
- Eyelid itching – due to the irritation from inflammation and epidermis scaling of the eyelid.
- Flaking of skin on eyelids – due to tear film suppressed by clogged meibomian glands.
- Gritty/burning sensation in the eye, or foreign-body sensation – due to crusting from bacteria and clogged oil glands
- Frequent blinking – due to impaired tear film from clogged oil glands unable to keep tears from evaporating.
- Light sensitivity/photophobia
- Misdirected eyelashes that grow abnormally – due to permanent damage to the eyelid margin
- Eyelash loss – due to excessive buildup of bacteria along the base of the eyelashes.
- Infection of the eyelash follicle/sebaceous gland (hordeolum)
- Debris in the tear film, seen under magnification (improved contrast with use of fluorescein drops)
If blepharitis is not treated promptly, it can lead to an infection at the base of an eyelash or oil gland. This infection is called a stye.
Left untreated, it may become a chronic cyst. You may need surgery to remove it.
