Chalazion or meibomian cysts
Both ‘chalazions’ and the commonly known ‘stye’ are very similar lumps which occur on the eyelid.
A chalazion is a blocked up, inflamed meibomian gland. Your meibomian glands are located in your eyelids. They produce an oily secretion which slows the evaporation of your tear film. They have tiny pin-point openings along the length of your eyelids, behind the line of your eyelashes. Sometimes a meibomian gland gets blocked up. It begins to swell and may become infected.
An infected gland resembles a boil-like swelling of the eyelid. It is treated with antibiotics, usually an ointment, sometimes as tablets. If it is about to burst, warm compresses can help the pus to come out.
Sometimes your ophthalmologist will lance the boil, under a local anaesthetic injection. Very often the infection rapidly disappears, but it leaves behind an unsightly lump. If this is big enough, it can easily be removed, again under a local anaesthetic injection.
A stye is an infection of an eyelash follicle. It resembles a yellow-headed spot. Antibiotic ointment is usually sufficient to get rid of a stye and prevents it spreading to other eyelashes. In most cases there is no special cause, and the chalazion or stye is a one-off. Diabetes, however, should be excluded as a possible cause and this is easily done by testing a blood or urine sample. If the problem is recurrent blepharitis should be suspected. This can be caused by certain skin complaints, such as rosacea, dermatitis and dandruff.