Epicanthus as a Cause of Pruritis

Ahn, Jinhyung; Byon, Doseok; Lee, Hongsik

Abstract

According to the ophthalmic literature, the lack of epicanthus and termi-nal hairs at the medial side of punctum are unique features in most non-Asian eyelids.We wanted to examine the presence of terminal hairs at the medial side of punctum in Asian.A study was designed to examine 416 eyes of 208 patients who had visited our hospital between March 1999 and Sep-tember 1999.Physical examination included the presence of epicanthus, terminal hairs at the medial side of punctum, upper eyelid crease and pruritus in medial canthal area.The mean age of the patients was 56.5 years.Epi-canthus was seen in 256 eyes of 416 eyes (61.5%).The upper lid creases were detected in 242 eyes of 416 eyes (58.2%)and classified mostly as the medial tapering and lateral flaring type (83.5%).There were 250 eyes of 416 eyes (60.1%)who had terminal hairs at the medial side of punctum.Sixty eyes of 416 eyes (14.4%)complained of itching sensation in medial canthal area and had experienced once or two times per week (70.0%).They com-posed of 44 eyes of 60 eyes (73.3%)with epicanthus and terminal hairs, 10eyes of 60 eyes (16.7%)with only terminal hairs, and 6 eyes of 60eyes (10.0%)with only epicanthus.In our study, we found many patients had terminal hairs at the medial side of punctum in Asian and the presence of epicanthus and terminal hairs caused itching sensation at medial canthal area.