A chalazion is a lump in the eyelid which can be associated with some mild pain, tenderness and redness of the eyelid. It is caused by a clogged, inflammed or infected gland of the lids, known as a melbomian gland. The lids contain about 70 Melbomian glands that help maintain your cornea from drying out by secreting an oily material.

Many times the chalazion presents as a small lump that is painless in either the upper or lower lids. It can continue to grow in size sometimes becoming the size of a pea or larger. If the chalazion becomes infected it becomes tender and can become much larger as well. The treatment is warm compresses for 15 to 20 minutes four times a day. In some patients topical antibiotics are used as well. Sometimes light massage over the bumpy area several times a day is helpful. Small chalazions oftentimes will disappear after heat treatment. Larger ones may take much larger before they begin to decrease in size and gradually disappear. If the chalazion does not disappear after three to four weeks of appropriate treatment and the patient would like to have it removed a simple procedure is performed in the office to achieve this goal. Eyeliner or mascara should not be worn during treatment. One should discard any containers or brushes that may be contaminated with germs that caused the infection.

Should one have a recurrence of chalazion the most important thing to do initially is to start applying warm eye soaks to the eyelids for 15 minutes four times a day. One should continue doing that until the chalazion is almost entirely gone. Most chalazion will typically disappear without having to be drained or by other treatments. In some patients recurrent chalazion are signs of cancer known as sebaceous cell carcinoma.