Entropion | Causes & treatment

What is entropion?

Entropion is an eye condition whereby an eyelid (either upper or lower) turns inwards towards the surface of your eyeball. This leaves the eyelashes and skin rubbing against your unprotected eye, which understandably can cause discomfort.

What causes entropion?

Similarly to ectropion, the most frequent cause of entropion is natural ageing. This causes muscles to weaken and sometimes they fail to perform their intended function around the eye and keep the eyelids in their correct positions.

Entropion can also be caused by scarring of the area affecting the shape of the eyelid, excessive rubbing of the eyes or an eye infection such as trachoma, which is fairly common in certain developing countries.

It’s also possible for entropion to be congenital, which means present from birth. However, this is rare.

What are the symptoms of entropion?

Someone suffering from entropion may experience these symptoms in the affected eye:

• Watering
• Redness
• Pain
• Irritation
• Sensitivity to light
• The feeling of a foreign body in the eye
• Discharge
• Eventually a corneal ulcer may form, which can threaten the sight

How to treat entropion

Medical advice should be sought immediately if you believe that you are suffering from entropion. If left untreated, this condition may lead to blindness or permanent reduction of vision.

One possible line of treatment is Botulinum Toxin injections to restore the correct eyelid position. However, further injections will be required at regular intervals, so this is not a long-term solution.

Surgery is a permanent solution for entropion sufferers. At OCL vision, we offer entropion surgery to restore the affected eyelid to its normal position and stop the friction between eye and eyelashes. Read more about the surgery here.

How to prevent entropion

There is usually no clear way to prevent entropion, particularly because it is most commonly caused by the natural ageing process. However, if you have recently visited a country where trachoma is common and you subsequently develop eye redness and/or irritation, please seek a medical opinion as soon as you can.