Although it is a respiratory disease, if not treated early and properly, sinusitis can affect the eyes. Complications of sinusitis affecting the eyes include inflammation of the surrounding connective tissue, eye abscess, optic neuritis … Let’s learn more about this information in the article below.
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Complications of sinusitis affect the eyes
There are many patients who are surprised when they go to a sinus examination that the doctor diagnoses with eye problems and vice versa. This is because sinusitis, if not treated in time, can affect the eyes.
Due to its location, the structure of the eye is usually located near the sinuses, and the sinuses and eyes are separated only by thin bone walls. Therefore, the inflammation in the sinus cavities will easily damage the eyes. Typically, these lesions are divided into 3 categories, which are presbyopia, inner-eye lesions, and posterior eye damage.
Below are the common eye complications caused by sinusitis:
1. Eye abscess due to sinusitis
An eye abscess, or socket infection, is one of the common sinus complications. This is an eye socket condition secondary to infection from the surrounding sinus cavities, especially the sieve and the upper sieve.
A feature of people with an eye abscess due to sinusitis is a heavy eye swelling, pushing the eye protruding forward, and limited eyeball movement. Even if the ischemia lasts for about 90 minutes, it will cause permanent blindness.
At this time, the clinical symptoms that are easy to see are the eye sockets with edema, bulging eyes, and vision loss. If the abscess is located at the upper or lower eyelid position, the eyes will be swollen, hot, red, obscuring vision. The middle part of the rim of the orbital and the groove between the eyelid will be head, the synaptic membrane is reddish, edgy. Pus abscesses will burst after about 4-5 days.
The treatment of treatment indicated in this case is surgical injection of the eye abscess.
2. Inflammation of the eye socket – Complications of sinusitis affect the eyes
This complication usually comes on suddenly and comes on quickly. Most patients will present with mild nasal congestion. The next day, the eyes were swollen, and the eyeballs were also swollen causing pain.
Orbital inflammation is also a serious sinus inflammatory complication. But if detected early to treat with anti-inflammatory drugs will not affect vision.
3. Inflammation of connective tissue around the eye sockets
Periocular connective tissue inflammation is more common in people with acute sinusitis. The common symptoms are that the patient will feel the intense pain in the eyes, the pain penetrating the top of the head, the swelling of the eyelids. Inflammation can spread to the temples, making it difficult to examine the eyeballs and assess the extent of the bulge.
In this case, the patient should undergo a physical examination to assess if there is a purulent accumulation in the eye socket or merely inflammation of the connective tissue.
Surgical treatment will be indicated if the patient belongs to 1 of 3 cases: dilated pupils due to paralysis, fixed eyeball due to paralysis of the eye object, loss of corneal sensation.
4. Sinusitis causes vision loss
If it is not clear how sinusitis affects the eyes, vision loss is also a complication of sinusitis. Many people suddenly feel that their eyesight is reduced or even blinded by a sinus infection. Being surrounded by the sinuses, the eye is an inflamed organ in the sinuses that can damage.
5. Neuritis of the vision – complications of sinusitis affecting the eyes
Up to 60% of patients with optic neuritis are caused by complications of sinusitis and ocular sinusitis. When this happens, the patient’s eyesight suddenly declines. If an ophthalmologist was examined, the fundus would not be able to determine the cause.
Neuritis symptoms are also very difficult to recognize. Does not cause stuffy nose, runny nose, also rarely has headaches. Sometimes little fluid drains down the throat from the upper slit. Depending on the effectiveness of the treatments applied, vision may be restored in a short or long term. Among them, surgical curative sinusectomy is most often indicated.
6. Abscess of tear bags
This is a common complication in acute sinus infections. Due to the thin structure of the tear bone, the canal is proportional to the opening of the eye to the nose and sinuses, so the tear sac is susceptible to infection. At this time, the patient’s eye will be red, swollen, then spread to the entire eyelid and conjunctiva. The patient also has symptoms of fever, eye pain. If the pus breaks, the pain will go away, but it can lead to chronic fistula later.
7. Leak of eyelids – complications of sinusitis affecting the eyes
Eyelid leakage is usually only seen in young children, especially children under 1 year old. Because when the sinuses are filled with pus, it breaks the bone wall, forming pus pockets under the skin and the inner corner of the eye. Then, they rupture to form a fistula out of the lower or upper lids.
These leaks not only cause cosmetic loss due to scarring, but also cause other serious problems. Your baby will not be able to close his eyes because the scarred eyelid is pulled, the regulation of moisture for the eye is also affected. From there, affecting vision.
8. Orbital syndrome due to sinusitis
One of the eye complications caused by sinusitis that we cannot fail to mention is the ocular ocular syndrome. Patients suffering from this condition will find the upper orbit and the visual opening are extremely painful. Vision may be impaired in cases of cavernous sinus thrombosis. If not treated early, the disease can cause permanent blindness.
Above are the complications of sinusitis affecting the eyes. Because these are all dangerous complications, so the patient is not subjective to sinusitis but needs to be examined and treated early.
