Meibomian gland dropout/atrophy

[marykate]

Is meibomian gland dropout and atrophy the same thing? Is it completely irreversible?

[kkahthesea]

I was also wondering.....How long does it take for dropout (or atrophy) to occur.....days of inflammation....weeks...months...or years???

[acarol]

Is meibomian gland dropout and atrophy the same thing? Is it completely irreversible?

What does this mean?

[indrep]

The published data and those who speak on this issue report that after 36 months of inflammation your meibomian and lacrimal glands show signs of atrophy. Typically once atrophy takes place it is not considered reversible.

[Lucy]

Indrep......am I right in assuming Sjogrens would/could be a primary cause of atrophy? Lucy

[marykate]

What does this mean?

I'm not sure if they mean the exact same thing (can anyone clarify?), but in general, it means that inflammation basically destroys your meibomian glands so that they no longer secrete oil anymore.

Thanks Indrep for the info. I'm glad that it takes up to a few years for signs of atrophy to occur, instead of a few months. But at the same, its not a lot of time because we can have inflammation w/o feeling symptoms for a while and then when we do feel bad, it takes a long time to find a doc who can actually pinpoint the problem and then even more time to get the inflammation under control.

Oh woe is the dry eye sufferer...

[indrep]

Lucy
Yes Sjogrens, RA, etc cause inflammation in the body. Its not the Sjogrens that causes the atrophy, its the inflammation that actually closes the ducts that secrete the aqueous and lipids. When the glands can't secrete what they are producing they stop producing. Also over time scar tissue forms over the ducts.

These patients will sometimes have all four puncta occluded and still need many artificial tears/lubricants because their lacrimal glands do not secrete aqueous and/or the meibomian glands are secreting so few lipids that what little aqueous is around evaporates very quickly.

[Lucy]

Thanks, Indrep.

[autumnn]

Hi All-
I asked my eye doc about this and he looked at mine and said that "maybe a few- two or three total- have dropped out" but that it is nothing to worry about because the rest are still there- now just focus on getting better flow from them. I asked him if other people with "normal eyes" would have a few glands that were gone and he said "probably" if someone examined them.....the amount I have he said is enough....
I am so confused

[indrep]

autumnn
At any given time n the "normal" eye as amny as half of your meibomian glands will not be secreting oil.

[autumnn]

indrep- Wow, I did not know that....and here I am freaking out over one or two...this forum is sure a wealth of information.

[Rebecca Petris]

There is a scale somewhere... I forget the link... that shows, on average, how many glands are functioning by age in healthy subjects. Seems like only kids have a full row of fully productive MGs.

[lboogie]

Hi Autum,
Yeah, my eye doc says the same thing -- everyone has some glands not pumping. And some ethnicities are more prone to it. Namely Irish decent folks -- he probably noted that b/c he used to work in Boston.

You had lasik right? Me too -- I think with lower acqueous flow we're just suseptible to any difference. We needed lots of both -- and now we're having problems with both.

How you feeling these days? How far out are you again??

[autumnn]

Hi Lboogie-
I did have lasik- about 11 years ago and am not sure what role that is playing in this....my Shimmer is good but my TBUT is the problem. Usually my right eye is pretty good often "normal" but,my left eye hurts....it secretes less oil- that I know for sure. I just started scrubs and lid hygine (religiously) two weeks ago and am seeing some positive changes....my doc put me on Restasis again and so far so good with that as well. I am just hanging in there and resufe to accept that this is how the rest of my life will be. I have had times of no symptoms- just trying to get back there.
Are you doing well? I hope so

[acarol]

autumnn
At any given time n the "normal" eye as amny as half of your meibomian glands will not be secreting oil.

I didn't know this either - interesting