Chalazion, Demodex and Blepharitis in Chronic Dry Eye Disease.

Chalazion is a lump that looks like a pimple formed at the eye lid.  It is caused by lipogranulomatous inflammation of the meibomian gland. Due to the infiltration of giant cells in this chronic inflammatory granuloma.   It is suspected that chalazion may be caused by a host response to foreign material derived from several pathogens, including mites residing on eye lashes.  . 

Prevalence in younger patients, less than 20 years of age is about 13 to 20% .  In older people this increases to approaches to 95 to 100% by age of 70 years.^1-3 A few reports have described the presence of mites in tissue sections of a surgical specimen⁴ and in lashes of an adult patient with chalazia.⁵ Recently, a research study by Yam and co-workers conducted a retrospective study that reported a high incidence (72.9%) of Demodex infestation in 30 adult patients with recurrent chalazia.⁶

New research in a prospective, observational, comparative study that looked at patients with chalazia and compared them with age and gender matched patients without chalazia.⁷  The results indicates all patients with chalazia underwent surgical removal of the lipogranulomatous lump.  This study showed Demodex infestation was significantly more prevalent in patients with chalazia than in control patients as a group (69.2% vs 20.3%) . Demodicosis was associated strongly with chalazia. Demodex brevis was significantly more prevalent than Demodex folliculorum in patients with chalazia. Patients with Demodex infestation tended to show recurrence, mainly in those with Demodex brevis.

This study indicates that ocular demodicosis is a risk factor for chalazia. Although crusts and debris on eyelashes is often a sign of Demodex infestation,

Treatment for Chalazion is hot compress – 4-5 times/day.  10-20 minutes each time. Plus using dilute tea tree oil to get rid of the eye lash mites.

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