eMedicine Specialties > Emergency Medicine > Ophthalmology
Chalazion: Differential Diagnoses & Workup
Updated: Apr 22, 2009
- Overview
- Differential Diagnoses & Workup
- Treatment & Medication
- Follow-up
- Multimedia
Differential Diagnoses
Other Problems to Be Considered
Blepharitis
Hyperimmunoglobulinemia E (hyper-IgE) syndrome
Meibomianitis
Meibomian cell carcinoma
Microcystic adnexal carcinoma
Plexiform neurofibroma
Sebaceous carcinoma
Squamous cell carcinoma
Staphylococcus aureus infection
Virus-induced infection
Workup
Laboratory Studies
- The diagnosis of chalazion is usually a clinical one and often does not require further workup. The provider should be certain the eyelid lesion is a sterile inflammation that will resolve with limited intervention.
- The provider must ensure that the patient has an adequate understanding of the typical progression of an uncomplicated chalazion: resolution within a few months. Recurrent symptoms, refractive errors, or persistent lesions should prompt the provider to further investigate the lesion.
- Fine-needle aspiration cytology of chalazia with atypical clinical presentation provides a means of documenting the diagnosis and excluding malignancy but should be deferred to an eye specialist.
- Viral and bacterial cultures can provide results to include or exclude an infectious etiology but tend to be low yield.
- Visual acuity testing
- Visual field testing
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| Overview: Chalazion |
 Differential Diagnoses & Workup: Chalazion |
| Treatment & Medication: Chalazion |
| Follow-up: Chalazion |
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References
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Further Reading
Keywords
chalazion, chalazia, nodule on eyelid, meibomian glands, deep chalazion, Zeis sebaceous glands, superficial chalazion, painless granuloma on eyelid, painless swelling on eyelid, seborrhea, acne rosacea, chronic blepharitis, high blood lipid concentrations, meibomian cyst, meibomian gland lipogranuloma, tarsal cyst
