How to quickly reduce swelling of stye

Some patients will suddenly find their eyes red and swollen when they wake up in the morning, and feel very uncomfortable and painful. They think that this may be due to staying up late last night and their eyes did not get enough rest and thus became swollen. In fact, this is not the case. It is very likely that the stye came very suddenly, causing the patient's eyes to become swollen. So how can the stye be reduced in size quickly?

There are two kinds of glands on the eyelids. The sebaceous glands at the root of the eyelashes open into the hair follicles. The meibomian glands are buried in the tarsal plates near the junctional membrane and open into the eyelid margins. Stye is an acute suppurative inflammation of these two glands. The bacteria that cause styes are mostly Staphylococcus aureus, so styes are mostly purulent inflammations.

Types and symptoms of styes

There are two types of styes, external styes and internal styes.

External hordeolum: When the sebaceous glands in the hair follicles of the eyelashes are infected by staphylococci, it is called eyelid furuncle, commonly known as "stye". People with poor hygiene, weak constitution or refractive errors are prone to this disease. When the disease occurs, the eyelids become locally red, swollen, congested and tender, and nodules can be felt near the eyelid margin. Sometimes the preauricular lymph nodes are enlarged and tender, and there may even be symptoms such as chills, fever, and general discomfort. After a few days, yellow pus spots appeared at the roots of the hair follicles. After the pus was drained, the symptoms gradually improved and healed. If an external stye is allowed to burst and drain pus after it becomes purulent, it often causes sequelae such as eyelid deformation, ectropion, and incomplete closure of the upper and lower palpebral fissures due to scar contraction, so attention should be paid.

Internal stye: also known as blepharitis. Internal hordeolum is an acute inflammation of the meibomian gland. Its symptoms are the same as those of external hordeolum, but because the inflammation is in the firmer tarsal tissue, the pain is more severe and the inflammation lasts longer. In severe cases, the entire eyelid is red and swollen, and the preauricular lymph nodes on the affected side are swollen and tender. After a few days, pus will grow inside the eyelid. The eye will heal after the pus is drained and the symptoms will disappear.

Regardless of whether it is an internal or external stye, if pressure is applied to squeeze out the pus, bacteria and toxins will easily flow back into the skull, causing serious complications such as orbital cellulitis and sponge embolism, which can be life-threatening in severe cases. Therefore, when you have a "sty", do not squeeze it.

Treatment and care of stye

Apply local hot compress to promote suppuration. Mild inflammation can also disappear completely after hot compress.

Systemic and local antibiotic treatment can promote the disappearance of inflammation. Penicillin antibiotics can be taken orally, injected intramuscularly or intravenously, and they are very effective against pyogenic bacteria. Eye drops can be applied topically, generally 0.25% chloramphenicol eye drops are sufficient. If there is a lot of secretion, rifampicin eye drops can be used for better results. Children can apply chloramphenicol eye ointment after falling asleep.

Make an incision and drain the pus instead of waiting for it to burst on its own. This can reduce the patient's pain and shorten the treatment period.

When pus heads appear, do not squeeze them with your hands, because the eyelids are rich in blood vessels, the ocular veins are connected to the veins in the orbit, and to the cavernous sinuses in the skull, and the ophthalmic veins have no venous valves, so blood can flow back in all directions. Squeezing them can spread the inflammation and cause serious complications, such as orbital cellulitis, cavernous sinus thrombosis, and even sepsis, which can be life-threatening. Do not rub your eyes with dirty hands to avoid bringing bacteria into the eyes and causing infection.