Categories
Ailmemts & Remedies

Chalazion

A chalazion immediately after excision
Image via Wikipedia

Alternative Names:Meibomian gland lipogranuloma

Definition:
A chalazion is a small bump in the eyelid caused by a blockage of a tiny oil gland.
It is a cyst in the eyelid that is caused by inflammation of a blocked meibomian gland, usually on the upper eyelid.

..click to see the pictures >....…(01)....`(1)..…....(2)………….(3)..………………

..
…………………………………………...Eyelid affected by Chalazion
Chalazions differ from styes (hordeolums) in that they are usually painless apart from the tenderness caused when they swell up, and in size (chalazia tend to be larger than styes). A chalazion may eventually disappear on its own after a few months, though more often than not, some treatment is necessary.
A large chalazion ca. 20 minutes upon excision. This bipartite chalazion was removed via two separate incisions. Further along the lower eyelid, signs of chronic inflammation are visible.

Causes:

A chalazion develops within the glands that produce the fluid that lubricate the eye. These are called Meibomian glands. The eyelid has approximately 100 of these glands, which are located near the eyelashes.

A chalazion is caused by blockage of the duct that drains one of these glands. A chalazion begins as swelling and tenderness, and later forms a cyst-like growth. Many chalazia disappear without treatment after a few months

Signs and symptoms:

*Painful swelling on the eyelid

*Eyelid tenderness

*Sensitivity to light

*Increased tearing

*Swelling on the eyelid

*Heaviness of the eyelid

Diagnosis:
Exams and Tests

Examination of eyelid confirms the diagnosis.
Rarely, the Meibomian gland duct may be blocked by a skin cancer. If this is suspected, a biopsy may be needed to diagnose the disorder.

Treatment:
A chalazion will often disappear without treatment within a month or so.

The primary treatment is application of warm compresses for 10-15 minutes at least 4 times a day. This may soften the hardened oils blocking the duct and promote drainage and healing. If the chalazion continues to get bigger, it may need to be surgically removed. This is usually done from underneath the eyelid to avoid a scar on the skin.

Topical antibiotic eye drops or ointment (eg chloramphenicol or fusidic acid) are sometimes used for the initial acute infection, but are otherwise of little value in treating a chalazion. Chalazia will often disappear without further treatment within a few months and virtually all will resorb within two years.

If they continue to enlarge or fail to settle within a few months, then smaller lesions may be injected with a corticosteroid or larger ones may be surgically removed using local anesthesia. . If the chalazion is located directly under the eyelid’s outer tissue, however, an excision from above may be more advisable so as not to inflict any unnecessary damage on the lid itself. Eyelid epidermis usually mends well, without leaving any visible traces of cicatrisation. Depending on the chalazion’s texture, the excision procedure varies: while fluid matter can easily be removed under minimal invasivion, by merely puncturing the chalazion and exerting pressure upon the surrounding tissue, hardened matter usually necessitates a larger incision, through which it can be scraped out. Any residual matter should be metabolized in the course of the subsequent healing process, generally aided by regular appliance of dry heat. The excision of larger chalazia may result in visible hematoma around the lid, which will wear off within three or four days, whereas the swelling may persist for longer. Chalazion excision is an ambulant treatment and normally does not take longer than fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, owing to the risks of infection and severe damage to the eyelid, such procedures should only be performed by a doctor.

Rarely chalazia may reoccur and these will be biopsied to help rule out tumors.

Antibiotic eye drops are usually used several days before and after removal of the cyst, but are otherwise of little value in treating a chalazion.

A chalazion that keeps coming back should be biopsied to rule out tumor.

Click for :->Chalazion and its online homeopathic treatment

Prognosis: Chalazia usually heal on their own. The outcome with treatment is usually excellent.

Complications:
A large chalazion can cause astigmatism due to pressure on the cornea. This will resolve with resolution of the chalazion.Complications including, but not limitedtohypopigmentation may occur with corticosteroid injection.The presence of recurring chalazion in the same area sometimes leads to a consideration of sebaceous cell carcinoma.The minor operation is quite painless, the eyelid is injected with a local anesthetic a clamp is put on the eyelid, then the eyelid is turned over and the chalazion is scraped out.

When to contact your Healthcare Provider:
Apply warm compresses and call your health care provider if the swelling progresses or persists longer than 1 month.
Call for an appointment with your health care provider if lumps on the eyelid continue to enlarge despite treatment or are associated with an area of eyelash loss.

Prevention:
Proper cleansing of the eyelid may prevent recurrences in people prone to chalazia. Cleaning the eyelash area with baby shampoo will help reduce clogging of the ducts.

Click to see also:-> Stye
Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.
Resources:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001006.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalazion

Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
News on Health & Science

Medicated Stents Safe For Heart

Heart patients who have undergone angioplasty can breathe more easy.

CLICK & SEE

One of the largest follow-up studies has come out with “reassuring” results that suggest medicated stents (used during angioplasty) are safe. This clears serious concerns raised on medicated stents with regard to blood-clot formation, leading to heart attacks.

Stents are spring-like devices inserted in the arteries after clearing the blockage during an angioplasty procedure to keep them open. Drug-coated or medicated stents, first introduced in 2003, incorporate medicines to prevent the artery from reclosing.

A huge debate has been raging over the last couple of years on the safety of medicated stents as against the bare-metal ones. Last year, reports started surfacing from studies on patients in Europe that drug-releasing stents carry a greater risk of blood clot formation (stent thrombosis), thus leading to heart attacks.

The study holds a great relevance for India where the use of medicated stents is growing rapidly, and in 2006 was about 70% — about 40% of patients had medicated stents the previous year. The latest study carried out in the US thus nullifies the findings of earlier follow-ups which had said that medicated stents were riskier to use and thus had safety concerns, doctors say.

Says Ashok Seth, chairman and chief cardiologist Max Heart and Vascular Institute: “Studies and follow up trials on patients suggest that medicated stents are as safe as the metal ones. The latest US study nullifies the concern on drug-eluting stents, and these are no different from the metal ones.”

In fact, stents made by some Indian companies such as Sahajanand are almost ona par with the American/German ones used here, doctors say. Amongst the American stents used in India are ones by Johnson & Johnson and Abbott-Guidant.

The latest US study, presented at the American Heart Association, analyzed data on 20,654 stent patients in a Massachusetts data-base. About 65% of patients received a stent-coated with a drug to reduce re-narrowing of the artery and about 35% were implanted bare metal stents without the drug coating.

The Massachusetts study followed patients whose stents were implanted between April 2003 and December 2004. The incidence of heart attacks was similar in both groups, at 10.8% for drug-coated stent patients and 11.8% for those receiving bare metal. “In India, the case has been slightly different with a rare incidence of stent thrombosis cases,” Seth adds.

Source: The Times Of India

Categories
News on Health & Science

Piecing Together the Infertility Puzzle

[amazon_link asins=’B00UVD0G9G,3639511425,B01F82DXR6,B00ZLVUEYU,B00CZDQCB6′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c08eeb5c-8183-11e7-a4e9-69ad0ac52a18′]

[amazon_link asins=’0312313896,0982292155,B00J9Q3NQ4,096454671X,B007G9X19A,1616080582,1519370075,0316159212,1519332122′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’8361e82a-8183-11e7-a8b7-e97a3685c628′]

Couples With Infertility Problems Often Focus on a Woman‘s Biological Clock and Forget About the Male Contribution.
It is well known that a woman’s ability to conceive takes a dramatic dive as she approaches 40, but, what about the male biological clock?…….click & see

Men are often the forgotten piece of the infertility puzzle, but recent research suggests that infertility or early pregnancy loss isn’t always because of an aging egg.

A recent report from the Journal of the American Medical Association looks at past research to examine why aging men experience declining fertility.

It appears that men older than 35 are twice as likely to be infertile as men younger than 25.

As men age, both the number and quality of their sperm decline   so older men become less likely to father a child and more likely to father a child with schizophrenia, Down syndrome, or other problems.

A recent study suggests that autism, an increasing problem with no known cause, may also be linked to paternal age because men 40 years or older are almost six times more likely to have a child with an autism disorder than men younger than 30.

Miscarriages also are more common as dad gets older.

It’s not unusual for a woman to get her hormones, ovulatory function and fallopian tubes tested months before her husband has even had a basic semen analysis.

Given that 20 percent of couples are infertile because of abnormal or absent sperm and that 27 percent of infertile couples have a combination of male and female factors, it makes sense to evaluate a man’s equipment, so to speak, sooner rather than later.

Sperm Quality, Not Quantity, Sometimes a Problem

While it’s true that it only takes one sperm to impregnate an egg, sperm are not particularly skilled at the whole penetration thing.

While women only need to release one egg to successfully conceive, pregnancy is unlikely to occur unless there are millions of sperm swarming around it.

That’s why the first step in an evaluation of male fertility is a semen analysis, to see how many of the little guys there are.Counts greater than 20 million are considered to be normal.

Before a proud man with a count in the zillions alerts the media, he needs to keep in mind that even if the number is high, sperm quality is also a factor.

Every sample of semen has lots of sperm that are abnormal. If more than 85 percent of the sperm don’t have heads, tails, or look funny in some way, it doesn’t bode well fertility-wise.

In addition, if a sperm looks normal but is directionally challenged, the likelihood of finding its way down the fallopian-tube highway is limited.

Anything less than 25 percent to 40 percent forward motility reduces pregnancy rates. These are all factors doctors consider when running a semen analysis.

The Source of the Problem Sometimes Solvable, Sometimes Unexplained

There are four main causes of male infertility.
In roughly 10 percent to 20 percent of infertile men, an obstruction prevents sperm from traveling from the testis (where it is produced) to the urethra.

Roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of infertile men suffer low-sperm production as a result of testicular problems, resulting from infection, drugs, radiation or environmental toxins.

While hormone levels should be tested, they are rarely the problem.

Sometimes a low-sperm count is attributed to a varicocele — dilated veins in the scrotum. Varicocele repair was at one time a routine procedure thought to enhance male fertility, but is now highly controversial.

Studies show that the improvement in semen quality after varicocele repair doesn’t always translate to increased pregnancy rates and can use up precious time, especially when a woman’s biological clock is ticking.
The remainder of infertility is unexplained.

Men, unlike women, produce new sperm throughout their reproductive lives.
So while a 40-year-old woman is dealing with a 40-year-old egg, sperm is never older than 3 months old regardless of the age of the man.

However, that sperm becomes lower in quality as a man ages.
Aging men have declining levels of sex hormones, and it appears that these declining levels of testosterone have a significant impact on sperm production.

This well-publicized fact is certainly part of the reason that a number of men taking supplemental testosterone have increased 210 percent since 1999.

Supplemental testosterone is no magic pill, however. While higher testosterone levels potentially, but not definitively, result in improved sperm number and quality, supplemental testosterone may also be responsible for a number of health problems such as an increased risk of prostate hyperplasia, and possibly cancer.

Treatment: No Sperm Isn’t Always No Way

What is a man to do if doctors find his sperm isn’t up to donor quality?
Testosterone supplementation is rarely the cure. Urologists who specialize in male fertility can sometimes come up with specific causes and treatment recommendations for a less than terrific semen analysis after an evaluation of the man in question.

If there are quality sperm   but not a lot of them   assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm Injection (in which a sperm is actually injected into the egg) can solve the problems of many infertile couples in which a male factor is the dominant problem, but the techniques are complicated and expensive.

If sperm is being produced but is not transported properly, it can be retrieved from the testis prior to ejaculation.

Certain conditions result in an inability to make sperm and are not treatable. If that is the case, pregnancy can be achieved only with donor sperm.

What a Man Can Do Now?
Men can eat right, not smoke, and exercise regularly — the standard and very effective health advice that applies to so many situations — to help keep sperm as healthy as their biology allows.

Contrary to popular opinion, it is not necessary to replace those tight jockey shorts with baggy boxers.
It really doesn’t make a difference and clearly does nothing to enhance a man’s desirability.

Source:ABC News

css.php