Four major symptoms and treatments of red and itchy eyes

Everyone must pay attention to red and itchy eyes. Unlike symptoms such as dry and tired eyes, red and itchy eyes are mostly caused by eye inflammation and you need to go to an ophthalmologist as soon as possible. There are many diseases that can cause red and itchy eyes, some are caused by inflammation, some are caused by bleeding under the eyes, and the severity varies, so you need to go to the hospital for examination to confirm the diagnosis.

1. Acute conjunctivitis is a common epidemic eye disease caused by bacterial and viral infection. It is highly contagious, has an acute onset, and affects both eyes simultaneously or successively. The affected eye may experience stinging, itching, and a foreign body sensation. In severe cases, there may be photophobia and a burning sensation. Vision is generally not affected. It often causes redness and swelling of the eyelids, conjunctival congestion, and secretions that are mostly bacterial, mucous or purulent. The eyes are blocked by secretions when you wake up in the morning. The secretions of viral infections are mostly watery and may be accompanied by corneal lesions, enlargement and tenderness of the preauricular and submandibular lymph nodes. This disease is highly contagious and should be prevented and isolated. Towels and handkerchiefs should not be used crosswise, and washbasins should be rinsed and disinfected after use. Keep the eyes clean. If there is a lot of secretion, rinse with clean water and apply antibacterial or antiviral drugs topically. If there are systemic symptoms such as fever and headache, internal medicine treatment should be combined.

2. Acute iridocyclitis The causes of the disease are very complex and most of the time the causes are unknown. It may be related to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism, tuberculosis, syphilis, viral infections, etc. Decreased vision is accompanied by obvious photophobia, tearing, and pain, which may radiate to the eyebrow arches, temporal region, and forehead. Ciliary congestion or mixed congestion, sediment behind the cornea, turbid aqueous humor, unclear iris texture, constricted or irregular pupil, slow light reflex, and posterior adhesion of part of the iris and lens; intraocular pressure is generally normal, but sometimes it may increase or decrease. Actively look for the cause and treat it. Local treatment includes pupil dilation, hot compress, steroid eye drops or subconjunctival injection. Severe patients require systemic intravenous or oral steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs.

3. Keratitis Most keratitis is caused by external infection. Minor corneal trauma is often a trigger for infection. Common pathogens are bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. In addition, corneal immune dysfunction or malnutrition can cause keratitis, leading to pain in the affected eye, foreign body sensation, blepharospasm, photophobia, tearing, sudden decrease in vision, etc. Keratitis caused by different causes has its own characteristics, but the basic signs are blepharospasm and edema, obvious conjunctival congestion, mixed congestion and edema of the bulbar conjunctiva, corneal opacity or ulceration, visible sediment behind the cornea, and pus in the anterior chamber. The first step in treating keratitis is to eliminate the cause. We can use the different clinical characteristics of various keratitis, smear staining of secretions or ulcer tissues, bacterial culture, drug sensitivity tests, etc. to make a clear diagnosis and choose appropriate antibacterial drugs for treatment. If the cause of the disease is difficult to determine at the moment, broad-spectrum antibiotics or a combination of multiple antibiotics can be used for treatment.

4. Acute angle-closure glaucoma has a complex cause and mostly occurs in middle-aged and elderly women. It is a binocular disease and has a certain relationship with genetics. It is mainly caused by the closure of the eye's chamber angle, obstruction of the aqueous humor outflow pathway, and increased intraocular pressure. Symptoms include sudden decrease in vision, severe eye pain, ipsilateral migraine, and may be accompanied by nausea and vomiting (easily misdiagnosed as gastrointestinal disease). The eyelids and conjunctiva are edematous, the conjunctiva is significantly mixed with congestion, the corneal edema is cloudy, the anterior chamber is extremely shallow, the iris is edematous, the pupil is dilated, the light reflex disappears, and the intraocular pressure is very high. Acute angle-closure glaucoma develops suddenly and is a serious condition that can cause blindness in a short period of time, so timely rescue is required to control intraocular pressure. Topical and systemic medications to lower intraocular pressure. In principle, use medication to control intraocular pressure first, and then adopt surgical treatment as soon as possible.