Exopthalmos

The term exopthalmos is a Greek word. It means protruding or bulging eyeballs. Exopthalmos occurs as a result of any disorders occurring to the thyroid gland.

Exopthalmos is commonly caused by Grave’s disease. The Grave’s disease is a condition where the immune system of our body attacks the healthy tissues and cells of our body. This occurs as a result of hyperthyroidism.

Normally, exopthalmos occurs in both eyes. But in certain cases, it affects only one eye. The condition where only one eye in a person bulges or protrudes is referred to as proptosis.

Symptoms

The most visible symptom in this condition is the protruding or bulging of the eyeballs.

When a person has Grave’s disease, the eyeballs protrude due to the swelling up of tissues as well as the presence of an increased number of eye cells, which pushes the eyes form their orbit.

The symptoms of the Grave’s disease affecting the eyes are:

• dry eyes
• painful eyes
• photophobia
• irritation in the eyes
• lacrimation or the tears being produced, secreted and shed.
• diplopia or double vision
• loss of vision due to the optic nerve getting compressed.

If the Grave’s disease affects the whole body, then the symptoms are:

• anxiety
• loss of weight
• palpitations
• increase in appetite
• insomnia or difficulty to sleep

The movement of the eyes will be restricted if a person suffers from exopthalmos. This is due to the eye muscles becoming weak. The weakening of the muscles in turn can result in double vision or diplopia as well as amblyopia which are the inward turning of the eye.

One may experience itchiness and pain in the eyes.

Causes

The common reason for exopthalmos is Grave’s disease which occurs as a result of hyperthyroidism.

A person suffering from hyperthyroidism will have excessive lymphocytes in his eye in addition to the swelling and inflammation of the eye that will push the eyeballs to bulge out.

Thyroid orbitopathy or thyroid eye disease is the condition where the soft muscles and tissues that are present around the eyes are affected. This causes the inflammation and swelling of the eye tissues. This happens normally due to hyperthyroidism and in certain cases, due to hypothyroidism.

Auto-immune diseases like Grave’s disease cause exopthalmos. In the autoimmune disease, the auto-immune antibodies as well as the thyroid hormones present in excess amounts will attack the muscles and tissues around the eyes resulting in certain problems of the eye. These are:

• gritty and dry eyes
• puffiness
• redness
• inflammation and swelling
• problems with the vision
• protruding of the eyeballs

The other conditions that can cause exopthalmos are proptosis and some hereditary conditions.

Treatment

Since exopthalmos is progressive in nature, the person who has this must examine his eyes on a regular basis.

If the person has thyroid problems, the thyroid level is brought back to the normal using medications. But if Grave’s disease causes exopthalmos, treatment for thyroid will not improve the protruded conditions of the eyes.

Other treatments are;

• use of eye shades
• using eye drops to lubricate the dry cornea
• use of corticosteroids to reduce inflammation
• use of surgery, chemotherapy and surgery for treating a tumour.