New Treatment for Blepharitis

Inflammation of the eyelid margin (blepharitis) is a chronic inflammation of the eyelids. It is a common condition in the field of ophthalmology that can greatly affect the patient's quality of life, depending on the severity of the symptoms with which it presents.

Blepharitis can develop over a long period, with the symptoms usually mild at first. Many people will not seek examination and treatment at this stage, and over time the disease may worsen and become more significant and harder to treat.

In this article we will discuss a little background on blepharitis, and then focus on the accepted forms of treatment and on new treatments that have been added in recent years.

Blepharitis is divided into two types – anterior and posterior. The anterior type presents at the eyelid margin, the eyelashes and the lash follicles. The posterior type is a disease of the meibomian glands. The meibomian glands are responsible for producing the oily part of the tears.

The risk factors for developing blepharitis include age (prevalence rises as age increases), poor eye hygiene, oily skin, smoking, exposure to environmental pollution, accompanying skin diseases and more.

The inflammation arises from an unknown cause, but there are several factors associated with it: a problem in the activity of the eyelid's oil glands, allergies, parasites and bacteria that accumulate around the lashes and the adjacent glands.

The symptoms of blepharitis are varied and depend on the type and severity of the inflammation. The most common of them are: excessive tearing or dry eye, a sensation of sand in the eyes, redness at the eyelid margins, discharge on the lashes or their loss, sensitivity to light, and recurrent episodes of styes.

New Treatment for Blepharitis

The treatment of eyelid-margin inflammation involves several fronts. First, the patient must be instructed to maintain daily eyelid hygiene. Self-care constitutes a central and important part of the treatment and must be kept up in order to bring about improvement in the inflammation. The hygiene includes applying warm compresses to soften the secretions, massaging the eyelids with special wipes, and using dedicated cleansing agents. One must be careful to wash the hands before any contact with the eyes in order to prevent accompanying infections.

Another arm of the treatment is drug therapy, which includes the use of tear substitutes to relieve symptoms and to maintain the eye's moisture, and the use of topical or oral antibiotics if an infection is present. In some cases there will be a need to use steroid drops in order to ease the inflammatory component of the disease.

In situations where the standard treatment is not sufficient, there is a response of new treatments that exist in the field. The most common of them is treatment using a device called BlephEx.

Treatment with BlephEx is performed in a clinic setting; it lasts about 6-8 minutes and is intended to treat cases of anterior blepharitis. The device contains at its tip a small disposable sponge which, through rotating movements, removes secretions, bacteria and toxins that have accumulated at the eyelid margins and between the lashes.

Treatment with BlephEx is not painful; patients sometimes report a tickling sensation, and after the procedure will feel a sense of significant relief. After the treatment one can return to normal activity. For optimal results it is recommended to perform the treatment at a frequency of every 4-6 months.

Another device that works in a similar way to BlephEx is called "LidPro", and it too treats anterior blepharitis with a similar technique.

For treating cases of posterior blepharitis and meibomian-gland dysfunction, there is a device called "MiBo Thermoflo". This device applies controlled heat by means of ultrasound waves to areas of glands that have become blocked, and by doing so softens the gland opening and allows the material accumulated within it to empty more easily. By expelling the secretions, the glands can return to secreting the oily material needed for the normal production of tears. Another possible treatment for blocked meibomian glands is manual expression of the glands in the clinic.