What is entropion? What are the dangers of entropion?

Rubbing eyes is one of the main reasons why almost everyone was pulled by their parents when they were young. Although parents try their best to educate their children to develop good habits, this also means that "rubbing eyes" is always just a bad habit in everyone's eyes...

In fact, this may also be a warning of disease - rubbing the eyes is mostly because the eyes are itchy or feel like there is a foreign body. In addition to accidentally blinding the eyes, eyelashes growing backwards can also be a big problem that makes children's eyes uncomfortable. Severe inverted eyelashes are often caused by entropion!

1. What is entropion?

As the name suggests, entropion means that the eyelids, especially the eyelid margins, roll inward, which means that the eyelid margins, which were originally in the normal direction, now face the direction of the eyeball.

For infants and children, most of them are congenital, while in the elderly, degenerative entropion is more common, mostly due to the relaxation and atrophy of sebaceous muscles caused by aging. In addition, trachoma, tarsal trauma, etc. may also cause cicatricial entropion.

2. The harm of entropion

A small change in the orientation of the eyelid margin may not sound like a big deal, but its impact is significant.

First of all, it is very intuitive that entropion will cause the entire row of eyelashes to fall towards the eyeball, which will cause constant stimulation of the cornea by the eyelashes. Photophobia, tearing, foreign body sensation, itching and stinging are inevitable. These discomforts are difficult to endure. This is why if a child is always rubbing his eyes, parents need to be alert and check whether it is the cause of entropion and eyelashes.

At the same time, as the eyelashes and eyelid margins rub the eyeballs for a long time, corneal epithelial detachment and corneal ulcers are common. If no treatment intervention is carried out for a long time, it will inevitably lead to decreased vision or even blindness.

3. Treatment of entropion

Congenital entropion - Any corneal epithelial damage that cannot be repaired or improved by drugs can be treated with surgery, regardless of age. If you wait blindly, the corneal damage may worsen, and some may even cause irreversible corneal damage.

Senile entropion - For spasmodic entropion in the elderly, local injection of botulinum toxin is a treatment method that can be considered. If the effect is not good, surgery can be performed to remove excess loose skin, cut off part of the orbicularis oculi muscle fibers, etc. to improve the condition.

Scarring entropion - can only be treated surgically.

Entropion correction is a common ophthalmic surgery, and the recovery pace after surgery is also fast. Therefore, for patients with entropion, the pain is often not the method and process of correction. What makes them suffer is that they are often unaware of or underestimate the occurrence of the disease, delaying treatment, causing their eyes to suffer from increasingly serious symptoms and consequences day after day.