Your eyelid has tiny glands that produce an oily substance to help keep your eyes moist. When one of those glands gets blocked and infected, you can get a stye or chalazion.
What Are The Symptoms ?
Typically, styes are painful to touch, while a chalazion is not.
Appearance: A stye shows redness and swelling on the eyelid margin, resembling a white bump. On the other hand, a chalazion often appears as a firm, round lump on the eyelid.
Onset and progression: Styes emerge suddenly, becoming painful quickly, often with visible pus. In contrast, chalazion slowly develop as painless lumps on the eyelid and can persist for weeks or months.
At first, the chalazion may be painful, but after a little time, it usually doesn’t hurt.
Chalazionis not contagious.
How Is Stye/Chalazion Detected?
• Patient history: The eye care provider will ask about your symptoms, general health, and any history of chronic skin conditions like rosacea, acne, or blepharitis, which can make a chalazion more likely.
• External eye exam: The doctor will carefully examine the outer portion of your eye, paying attention to your eyelid, skin texture, and eyelashes.
• Eyelid eversion: The doctor will flip your eyelid over to get a clear view of the inside surface, where the blocked meibomian oil glands are located.
Riskfactorsfor Chalazion/Stye
Have had a chalazion before
Have chronic blepharitis,
Have dandruff/dry skin
Poor face & hand hygiene frequent travelling
Frequent travellers
Treatment
Warm compress
Antibiotic ointment
Oral medication
With proper management, a stye should heal in a week. If left untreated, it can take four to six weeks to heal. Some can persist for many months
Indications for surgical treatment include the following:
A large chalazion
A chalazion that does not respond to conservative management
Multiple chalazion
A chalazion causing significant astigmatic refractive error due to mechanical effects on the cornea