Contents:
- Medical Video: Wendy Williams On Living With Grave's Disease
- What is Graves' disease?
- Why can Graves' disease cause the eyes to bulge out?
- How do doctors diagnose this condition?
- How can this eye condition be overcome?
- The cause of the eye protrudes, other than because of Graves' disease
Medical Video: Wendy Williams On Living With Grave's Disease
Generally protruding eyes indicate expressions of shock, gasp, or even anger. But if your eyes stick out at any time, you should immediately see a doctor. Exophthalmos, or proptosis, is a medical term that is often used to refer to the eyeball that protrudes out. This disorder is common in people who have it thyroid disease, more specifically Graves' disease. What is Graves' disease, and why can it cause the eyes to stick out? What is the danger? Check out the full information in this article
What is Graves' disease?
Graves' disease is a disorder of the immune system that causes the thyroid gland to become aggressive. The function of the thyroid gland itself is to produce thyroid hormones to control body activity. If the thyroid gland is overactive and produces more thyroid hormone, it will cause hyperthyroidism.
Graves' disease attacks 1 in 3 people in the world, and is more commonly found in women aged 30-50 years or smokers. People who have immune disorders such as type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis (rheumatism) also tend to be more at risk for this disease
Why can Graves' disease cause the eyes to bulge out?
Graves' disease is autoimmune disease, a condition in which the body's immune system turns against healthy tissue (instead of foreign cells causing diseases such as viruses or bacteria). In this case, the immune system attacks the thyroid gland located in the neck and muscles and fat tissue around the eyes, causing swollen eyes.
The inflammatory effects caused by this attack can then increase the pressure on the eyeball. In some patients, this can suppress the eye nerves. Swelling and inflammation that occurs also helps weaken the function of the eye's driving muscles called extraocular muscles.
Some of the symptoms in people with graves' disease, in addition to protruding eyes, include:
- Eye pain
- Dry eyes
- Eye irritation
- Photophobia or sensitive to light
- Frequent tears
- Diplopia or double vision caused by weakened eye muscles
- Blurred vision
- Blindness, if the nerves of the eye are pinched
- It is difficult to move the eyes, because the eye muscles are affected
- Feeling there is pressure behind the eyeball
Eyes protruding from Graves' disease can cause you to experience long-term vision problems. Even so, the effect is rarely settled if this condition is immediately addressed.
How do doctors diagnose this condition?
First of all, the ophthalmologist will check your eye's motion abilities. Then the doctor will measure the extent of your eyeballs out of place with a device called an exophthalmometer. The eye can be called protruding out abnormally if the length of the bulge is more than 2 mm from the upper normal limit.
How can this eye condition be overcome?
There are a number of treatments that can be taken to deal with prominent eye conditions due to Graves' disease, such as:
- Quit smoking to reduce risk factors
- Take medication to reduce levels of thyroid hormone in the blood. This treatment does not directly treat your eye problems, but can prevent it from getting worse
- Artificial tears as dry eye lubricants
- Use sunglasses for photophobia
- Injection corticosteroids can help reduce the inflammation that accompanies your condition
- Surgery
The cause of the eye protrudes, other than because of Graves' disease
Eyes protruding can also occur due to conditions other than Graves' disease, namely:
- Eye injury
- Bleeding behind the eyes
- Forms of abnormal blood vessels behind the eyes
- Infection of the eye tissue
- Eye cancer, such as neuroblastoma and sarcoma
