Barley on the eye - Causes, symptoms and treatment. MF.

Barley is an inflammation of the hair follicle of the eyelash or the sebaceous gland near the root of the eyelash.

Causes of Barley on the Eye

Barley occurs due to infection( staphylococcus aureus) in the sebaceous glands, which is facilitated by the friction of the eyelids with the fingers. With a decrease in immunity, there is also a favorable environment for the reproduction of mite( demodex) in hair follicles, which can also lead to the appearance of barley. In the laboratory, take an eyelash and watch under the microscope the presence of demodex larvae.

Symptoms of barley on the eye

This disease is acute and begins with a mild soreness, itching, redness and swelling of the skin of the edge of the eyelid. A few days later appears a limited painful elevation with a yellowish tip - an inflammatory infiltrate with a head of barley. After some time, on the 3rd - 4th day, spontaneous dissection of barley will occur and all its contents, namely, pus and pieces of necrotic tissue, will come out. And immediately reduce soreness, redness, and swelling of the skin of the edge of the century. Full recovery comes on the 7th day.

Treatment of barley.

If in time to pay attention to the moderate soreness in the region of the eyelid, itching, redness and puffiness of the skin of the edge of the eyelid, it is quite often enough( 4-5 times a day) to lubricate the damaged area with a 1% solution of brilliant green for 70% alcohol( "zelenka").In the presence of an inflammatory infiltrate( limited painful elevation), dry heat or UHF therapy is indicated.

To apply moist lotions and compresses is not recommended because of the danger of infection into the excretory ducts of neighboring glands. As a dry heat, you can use salt, croup, sand or a cooked warm egg.

Fry the salt in a frying pan in a clean sock and apply to the inflamed area. The salt should be warm to avoid burns. When the process of barley breaking is in progress, it is impossible to do a thermal procedure, because heat increases blood circulation and inflammation spreads over a large area.

Very often barley can be combined with bacterial inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye( conjunctivitis), in such cases it is necessary to make bacterial inoculation from the eye in the laboratory at ophthalmological clinics to determine the sensitivity of the infection to antibiotics. According to the results, the doctor will prescribe a suitable antibiotic. If bakposev not do, prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics( floxal, tobrex, etc.), in the eye instilled every 4 hours for 5-7 days 30% solution of sulfacil sodium( albucid).Independently, antibiotic is better not to drip, because a prolonged instillation of antibiotic leads to the reproduction of fungal infection in the eye.

Sometimes an inflammatory infiltrate can have several heads of barley and is accompanied by a headache, an increase in temperature, an increase in the cervical lymph nodes on the side of the lesion. Do not self-medicate, go to the eye doctor to make a diagnosis and determine the correct treatment tactics.

Extruding barley is completely unacceptable!

Barley complications

It is not recommended to speed up the process of barley opening by self-extrusion, as this dissipates the infection into the mucous membrane of the eye, eyelid, orbit and leads to complications such as meibomite, phlegmon orbit. Similarly, the infection can get into the blood( sepsis) and spread through the blood vessels to the membranes of the brain( meningitis).

One of the frequent complications of barley is meibomite. Meybomit is an inflammation of the cartilage gland of the eyelid. Inflammation is always purulent. Cartilage of the century is a convex plate, which forms the shape of the century. There are meibomian glands in the cartilage of the century. These glands are modified sebaceous glands. The infection enters the excretory ducts of the meibomian gland and there is an inflammation of these glands - meibomite. The disease can be both acute and chronic. The clinic of acute meibomite is similar to the clinic of barley( soreness, redness, puffiness of the eyelid), only the infiltrate is located in the thickness of the cartilage and is visible on the mucous membrane of the eyelid with the inversion of the eyelid. Inflammatory infiltrate is revealed through the mucous membrane. Chronic meibomite proceeds in a different way: at the edge of the eyelid, reddening, thickening;yellowish-brownish crusts occur due to the increased work of the meibomian gland. Infection with sebaceous separable meibomian gland gets into the mucous membrane of the eye causing chronic inflammation - chronic conjunctivitis. Treatment of acute meibomite is the same as treatment of barley. Chronic meibomite is treated with antibiotics, which are selected after bacterial inoculation from the eye. Prevention meibomite consists in the periodic extrusion( at least 2 times a year) of sebaceous contents of meibomian glands by means of eyelid massage. This procedure is done by the eye doctor or specially trained nurse using a glass rod. The rate is 10 times.

With frequently appearing barley, a general examination with the therapist and an appointment with a physician-immunologist should be made to prescribe general restorative treatment( vitamin therapy, autohemotherapy).

Prevention of barley

Prevention of barley is very simple - the rules of personal hygiene: clean hands, do not use someone else's cosmetics and someone else's face towel. Proper nutrition with enough vitamins( raw vegetables, fruits should be in the diet every day).

Doctor ophthalmologist Onishchenko AA