Eyes

04 Are there Traces of Hepatophilic Virus in Your Body
– the Eyes ?
Chronic hepatitis patients often show signs of listlessness, tiredness, somnolence, a swelling of the upper part of the face, droopy eyes, darkness around the eyes, etc. Meanwhile the patient feels dizzy, a swelling in the chest cage, headache, giddiness, hiccups, a dull appetite and fullness in the stomach. During the active period of hepatitis, the above-mentioned symptoms will become obvious and stay on and some of them may serve as the main reasons for the patient to see a doctor.

Yellowish sclera:

Yellowish sclera may appear simultaneously with a yellowish pale skin and the degree of yellow color of the sclera usually serves as a mark to judge the gravity of jaundice. In clinical observation, the yellow color of sclera becomes lighter during the period of recovery from an acute jaundice hepatitis and the sclera will become clear after a chronic hepatitis is completely cured.

Bloodshot bulbar conjunctiva and bleeding under the bulbar conjunctiva:

A chronic hepatitis patient often shows a red face, bloodshot eyes, dry throat, thirst at night, dry eyes, blurred vision, etc. He sometimes feels itching in the eyes or difficulty in focusing or tears swell out, or feels an inner heat, uneasiness, easy to panic or grow angry, sleeps badly with many dreams. All of those signs are closely related to the exuberance of Yang of the liver due to a deficiency of Yin according to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine and those symptoms may be accompanied by hypertension. At this stage, the patient shows obvious bloodshot bulbar conjunctiva.

After a period of treatment by a Chinese medicine system, the "fire" in the liver will abate and so will the bloodshot sign as well as the redness of the face and ears. In more serious cases, bleeding may occur time and again under the bulbar conjunctiva, a sign closely related to the exuberance of Yang in the liver and a dysfunction of blood coagulation and brittleness of blood capillary. When the following signs are shown, it is necessary to consult an ophthalmologist:
With herpes of the conjunctiva, the patient will feel uncomfortable with the eyes, too much tears and shy of light.

If there is excretion in the eyes, it often is an indication of inflammation of the cornea.

In the case of a glaucoma patient, there tends to be hyperemia around the cornea accompanied with a painful swelling feeling of the eyeballs, deterioration of eyesight and iridization.

Pathological changes resulting from a deficiency of Vitamin A in the liver:

As the storage of Vitamin A, the liver plays a vital role in the distribution, metabolism and transformation of V-A in the human body. When the liver of a chronic hepatitis patient functions abnormally, it has difficulty converting the source of Vitamin A into V-A. A case of the early stage of V-A deficiency shall lead to night blindness, corneal opacity and dryness, or even a softening of the cornea and pathological changes of the eyeground (such as optic neuritis, neuroretinitis, optic atrophy and bleeding at the eyeground), the worsening of the sight and in extreme cases loss of sight. Among children, the pathological changes include spasm of the eyelids, red and swollen eyes, shyness of light, bloodshot eyes, dry eyes, loss of elasticity of the eyeballs, stye and bleeding underneath the conjunctiva.

4. Hepatitis related cortical blindness: 

This is a specific indication of hepatitis related brain disease with complications of dysopia which is therefore also called "liver-brain-eye complex" and shows up around the outbreak of hepatic coma.

5. Hepatitis related exophthalmos and inflammation of the eyeballs: 

These occur often in patients of cirrhosis with incidence reaching 12%, with complications of serious damages to the liver functions, jaundice and abdominal dropsy. The inflammation of the eyeball usually occurs as a complication of acute hepatitis.