Dacryocystitis of the newborn. What is it?

Young parents often have to face such a phenomenon when their babies have pus lumps at the inner corners of their eyes, which subsequently lead to the sticking together of the peepholes and their reddening.

We must pay tribute to many modern moms, who immediately come to mind such a pathology of the eyes, as conjunctivitis. They begin to actively fight it, washing their eyes with strong tea or furatsilinom, which helps in a short time to get rid of such symptoms. However, the cause of the disease can be not only inflammation of the conjunctival membrane of the eye, but also a pathological condition, such as a newborn's dacryocystitis. In this case, the microbial infection multiplies intensely not in the conjunctival cavity, but in the so-called lacrimal sac located at the inner corner of each eye in a special bone bed, the tear fossa.

Dacryocystitis of the newborn appears either immediately after birth, or several weeks after it, when the tear glands producing their secret start to actively function in the child. It should be said that only 15% of all children can cry with real tears immediately after the birth, the other 85% this feature appears in 4-8 weeks from the moment of birth. This is due to the fact that the lacrimal gland, like many other organs, is not fully developed at birth, its anatomical structures undergo their final differentiation much later, starting to work fully only after two months. In connection with such anatomical and physiological features, dacryocystitis, the symptoms of which appear in the form of purulence and tearfulness, sometimes remains undetected for a long time.

The main cause that causes a newborn baby's dacryocystitis is the anomaly of the development of the lacrimal ducts:

• Absence or underdevelopment of lacrimal points,
• Narrow tear ducts,
• Narrowed tear-nasal canal ,
• Preserved in it a tear-nasal embryonic membrane.

Very often, the newborn's dacryocystitis occurs as a result of a tear-nasal membrane that has not exploded at birth, which is much thicker than usual. Constantly developing tear because of the obstruction existing in the nasolacrimal can not, as it should be, penetrate into the nasopharynx. The first symptom appears - tearfulness, when the child's eyes are constantly "in a wet place." A little later, infection of the lacrimal sac takes place. Tear flowing does not wash it, stagnating inside and creating favorable conditions for the reproduction of the bacterial flora. The result of microbial contamination is the appearance first mucous, and then purulent discharge from lacrimal points, at the inner corners of the eyes. Eyelids are a little swollen, eyes have a somewhat inflamed appearance. In severe cases, complications may occur in the form of phlegmon of the lacrimal sac or its abscessing, which will require urgent surgical intervention.

The principles of therapy of dacryocystitis are based on the restoration of normal patency of the tear ducts and the reduction of inflammatory phenomena. Dacryocystitis, whose treatment can be carried out both conservatively and surgically, requires a very delicate and patient approach from parents and medical personnel.

Any treatment begins with the use of antibacterial eye drops, which are better prescribed in accordance with the sensitivity of microflora to antibiotics. Then parents should independently massage the area of the lacrimal sac 5 to 10 times a day to mechanically try to break the tear-nasal membrane. If these manipulations do not help, then it means that the child needs to undergo the procedure of probing the nasolacrimal canal, which usually helps to completely adjust its patency. However, there are exceptions to any rule. When the obstruction is not in the tube, but in the narrowing of the osseous part of the canal, the baby needs to be done from one to a whole series of reconstructive surgeries, the task of which is to correct the anatomical abnormality.