Treatment
A detailed history allows physicians to determine whether the presenting symptoms are due to an allergen or another source. Diagnostic tests such as conjunctival scrapings to look for eosinophils are helpful in determining the cause of the allergic response. Antihistamines, medication that stabilizes mast cells, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are safe and usually effective. Corticosteroids are reserved for more severe cases of ocular allergy disease, and their use should be monitored by an eye care physician due to possible side-effects. When an allergen is identified, the patient should avoid the allergen as much as possible.
If the allergen is encountered and the symptoms are mild, a cold compress can be used to provide relief. It is a quick and easy solution without using any medications. The cold temperature of the water will help to bring down swelling, as it would in a bruise or burn. In addition, there are many antihistamine medications available for purchase.
Mast cell stabilizers can help curing patients with allergic conjunctivitis when cold compress are no longer effective. They tend to have delayed results, but they have fewer side-effects than the other treatments and last much longer than those of antihistamines. Some patients are given an antihistamine at the same time so that there is some relief of symptoms before the mast cell stabilizers becomes effective. Doctors commonly prescribe lodoxamide and nedocromil as mast cell stabilizers, which come as eye drops.
A mast cell stabilizer is a class of non-steroid controller medicine that reduces the release of inflammation-causing chemicals from mast cells. They block a calcium channel essential for mast cell degranulation, stabilizing the cell, thus preventing the release of histamine. Decongestants may also be prescribed. Another common mast cell stabilizer that is used for treating allergic conjunctivitis is sodium cromoglicate.
Antihistamine medications are frequently prescribed because they provide immediate relief from the itch and burning symptoms.
Dual-action medications are also prescribed frequently. Olopatadine (Patanol) and Ketotifen Fumarate (Alaway or Zaditor) both provide protection by acting as an antihistamine and a mast cell stabilizer together. Patanol is a prescription medication, whereas Ketotifen Fumarate is not.
It is mandatory that the patients not use anything besides clean, warm water until visiting their doctors. Many of the eye drops can cause burning and stinging, and usually nearly all medications have side-effects. Therefore, patients are strongly recommended to first talk to their doctors before using any type of medication.
Individuals prone to developing allergenic conjunctivitis may prevent getting the condition by having proper eye hygiene, especially if wearing contact lenses. People allergic to pollen or mold are also advised to stay indoors when allergen levels are high. Allergic persons are recommended to keep the doors and windows closed and use air conditioners during the summer months to prevent developing allergic conjunctivitis.
Read more about this topic: Allergic Conjunctivitis
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.””
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“The motion picture made in Hollywood, if it is to create art at all, must do so within such strangling limitations of subject and treatment that it is a blind wonder it ever achieves any distinction beyond the purely mechanical slickness of a glass and chromium bathroom.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)