I’d like to introduce our recent study published in Clinical Ophthalmology.

 

Changes in meibomian gland morphology and ocular higher-order aberrations in eyes with chalazion.

Fukuoka S, Arita R, Shirakawa R, Morishige N.

Clin Ophthalmol. 2017 May 30;11:1031-1038.

 

Chalazion is a small tumor of the eyelid arising from a blocked meibomian gland. Chalazion itself or chalazion excision may damage the associated meibomian glands. Changes in meibomian gland morphology after chalazion remain unclear, however. Chalazion excision was found to affect visual function soon after surgery. Changes in ocular higher-ocular aberrations (HOAs: small optical irregularities or imperfections of the eye which cannot be corrected by simple sphere and cylinder corrections) at several years after chalazion remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the effects of chalazion on meibomian glands and ocular HOAs.

Seven males after chalazion excision and seven control males were enrolled. We evaluated changes in meibomian gland morphology using two kinds of meibography (BG-4M and KR-1W, Topcon, JAPAN). We measured ocular HOAs using the wavefront analyzer (KR-1W).

We found that (1) dropout and shortening of meibomian glands were seen more often in patients than in controls;

(2) the total HOAs showed an upward curve in patients (figure b below), but remained constant in controls (figure a below).

The morphological changes of meibomian glands in chalazion may be associated to instability of the tear film, which was suggested by the stability of ocular HOAs.

 

Please download our free, open access paper.