Allergic conjunctivitis is a common problem among outpatients in ophthalmology. Adults or children can get sick, but most of them are children, especially those with allergies. In fact, allergic conjunctivitis is caused by allergic reaction of ocular surface mucosa to special allergen particles suspended in the air. In addition to eye discomfort, patients may also have nasal allergic symptoms, so it is also called allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis clinically.

Usually this allergic rhinitis conjunctivitis can be roughly divided into two categories:

Seasonal allergic rhinitis conjunctivitis: the main allergen of this kind of allergy is pollen, especially in the summer hay fever season.

Perennial allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis: the main allergens of this kind of allergy may be dust mites, animal fur, suspended dust in the air, wet and cold air, special smell and so on. The onset time is possible all year round, and it is not limited to certain seasons or special climatic conditions. At the same time, the symptoms and discomfort caused by this perennial allergy are milder than seasonal allergies and will not be too uncomfortable.

Whether seasonal or perennial, allergic conjunctivitis can cause conjunctival redness, congestion, itchy eyes, tears, and even slightly affect vision. Eyelid swelling and edema around the eye socket may also occur; Severe cases may also be caused by itchy eyes and excessive rubbing of eyes, leading to more serious allergic symptoms. In the physical examination of ophthalmology, the conjunctiva is milky white due to edema, or pink edema due to conjunctival congestion, and there will be slight mastoid hyperplasia in the conjunctiva of the upper eyelid, and foreign bodies are felt in the eye.

Because many eye diseases may have symptoms similar to allergic conjunctivitis, in clinic, patients often diagnose themselves or even give drugs themselves (whether western medicine, Chinese medicine or folk therapy), but because it is not the right medicine, it can not only improve the symptoms, but even aggravate the condition. Self-treatment of ordinary patients includes washing eyes with salt solution or buying eye drops from pharmacies. These remedies may aggravate allergic symptoms or non-allergic eye diseases, and even produce serious sequelae such as glaucoma, infectious conjunctivitis, keratitis, or more serious eye socket infection and endophthalmitis, which will seriously damage their eyesight, so we should not be careless.

At present, the first step in the treatment of allergic conjunctivitis is to identify allergens and remove allergens immediately, which can usually achieve good results. However, most allergic conjunctivitis may not be able to detect the exact allergens, or the types of allergens are complex and difficult to detect. At this time, the first thing is to improve the living environment, especially the air quality or living temperature, in order to reduce the impact of allergens. Of course, the improvement of physical health, regular daily routine and healthy diet can improve the potential ability of the body to allergic attacks, reduce and slow down allergic attacks. Physical therapy, including eye ice compress (or cold compress), can reduce the local temperature of eyes, slow down the activity of allergic cells and reduce the release of allergic chemicals, thus slowing down allergic symptoms. However, you can directly wash your eyes with cold water or ice water (or normal saline) to reduce the local temperature of your eyes, because this may not only aggravate allergic symptoms, but may even lead to infection/question/14091194.html.