Otherwise, treatment always depends on the severity of the endocrine orbitopathy – there are mild, moderate and severe cases. In most cases, however, it is only mild and eye surgery is not necessary.
Endocrine orbitopathy - what you can do yourself
In the case of mild endocrine orbitopathy, the following measures may be helpful:
- Do not smoke! Smoking has an unfavorable effect on eye disease and increases inflammation. If you are a smoker, try to stop smoking. You may have to try several times. Seek professional support if you can’t do it alone. Of course, it’s best not to start smoking in the first place.
- Good eye protection for light-sensitive eyes: wear tinted glasses and sunglasses, preferably with side protection. The glasses also protect the eyes from environmental influences such as wind or dirt particles in the air. Your eyes will not become even more irritated.
- Prism lenses can help with double vision. To do this, stick a prism film onto the lenses. However, this method is only suitable on a temporary basis. If you have had double vision for a long time, you should consider having eye surgery.
- Eye gel or eye bandage for the night: If you cannot close your eyelid over your eye at night: Apply a large amount of eye gel to the eyes before going to bed or apply an eye bandage to sleep.
- Sleep with your upper body elevated: If your head is in an elevated position at night, your eyelids will be less swollen in the morning and your eyes will not protrude as much.
- Cool eye compresses soothe swollen and inflamed eyes. The feeling of pressure behind the eyes also subsides.
Endocrine orbitopathy: treatment with eye surgery
In some cases, one or more eye operations are necessary. The following surgical options are available:
- Orbital decompression: Surgeons attempt to remove the acute pressure from the optic nerve and relieve it. If the optic nerve is compressed, vision is at risk. Later on, the fat can also be relieved together with decompression of the bone to reduce the protrusion of the eyes. This can be done if the inflammation is no longer active but the eyes are still protruding.
- Surgery of the eye muscles for double vision: The surgeon moves the eye muscles on the eyeball. Here too, no inflammation should be present before the operation.
- Eyelid surgery: Sometimes the eyelid retracts due to the bulging eyeball or its shape is disturbing due to dryness and aspect. This can be corrected surgically by doctors lengthening the eyelid or reshaping it aesthetically. Surgeons can remove fat from the upper and lower eyelids to treat swollen eyelids. In both cases, the inflammation should have subsided before the operation.
- Irradiation of the eye socket: Today, doctors only rarely perform X-ray irradiation for special indications.