Blepharitis - Is it chronic or curable?

siana · Silver Member Joined: 21 Oct 2000 Posts: 297

I’ve been recently diagnosed with posterior blepharitis. I had a sensation of strong burning and a feeling that a foreign body was in my eye. My eyelids were all red and swollen. When I visited ophthalmologist he told me that my eyelids were inflamed because my oil glands had a problem with secreting the liquid necessary for preventing the dryness of the eyes. The cause of all this was actually a skin disorder named acne rosacea. The treatment prescribed is very complicated and tiresome - I have to wash my lids with different solutions several times a day and to drink two kinds of antibiotics. I was also told that this was not curable - you can at best keep the disorder under control for a longer period of time if you perform all those boring cleansing processes. Is blepharitis chronic or curable? Thanks.

burridge · Silver Member Joined: 05 Jul 2000 Posts: 344

I’m sorry to tell you that blepharitis cannot be completely cured; it shows the tendency to reoccur without a particular obvious reason and it requires constant care of the state of your eyelids. So you’ll have to be prepared to continue with the things you are doing now, not to that extent, of course, but hygiene is really very important in this situation. You’ll be advised to continue with cleansing of the eyelids with warm water, salt water, baby shampoo diluted with warm water or something else the doctor prescribed (you’ll probably have to do it once a day in comparison to five or six times you have to do it now - that is comforting, I hope) and then you’ll apply the gel or the cream appropriate to the condition of the lids. Antibiotics can become necessary only if you can’t control the problem and let the lids become inflamed again. You will have to make this process your daily routine and try to perform it as carefully and devotedly as possible since it is the best way to prevent the worsening of the problem. Once again, blepharitis is not curable, but you can make it appear not as often as it could.

Guest · Guest

I know this is going to sound counterintuitive, but you should go an allergist and get tested for allergies, especially dust mite allergy.

I was diagnosed with Chronic Bleph/MGD a year ago. I saw 5 eye doctors, both Optom. and Opthalm. None suggested allergy because my eyes didn't itch. I did all the usual treatments, including eyelid scrubs, warm compresses, and oral and optical antibiotics. Nothing worked.

In the end, I told a friend of mine about my problems. She's an allergist, and she tested me for allergies. I found that all of my problems were caused by dust mite allergies. An optical antihistamine (Patanol), an oral antihistamine (Allegra), combined with vacuuming my mattress, vacuuming under my bed, washing my pillow, and regularly washing my sheets and bedding solved the problem completely.

Blepharitis - Is it chronic or curable?

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