[Allergic conjunctivitis: diagnosis and treatment]

Allergic conjunctivitis are the most frequent presentation of ocular allergy. They concern two specialists, ophthalmologists and allergists, who must establish a close collaboration, to succeed in an etiological diagnosis and consequent efficacious treatment. On one hand the history of allergy must be deep and on the other a simple pollen etiology giving simple functional signs: skin tests (pricks or epicutaneous) after a flawless questioning, at need completed by the measurement of specific and total IgE titres in the tears and even sometimes by a conjunctival provocation test, minimal other ophthalmological examination, researching anomalies in the tear level and signs of cellular suffering (Break-up time: time of rupture of the tear film). The differential diagnosis falls into the field of the ophthalmologist: traumatic or infectious conjunctivitis (herpes), vernal kerato-conjunctivitis for acute conjunctivitis; dry eye, viral conjunctivitis, anomalies of convergence for the most frequent signs of chronic conjunctivitis. The treatments are symptomatic to relieve the patient, eye lotions without preservatives for long term treatment and etiological that include allergen avoidance, without forgetting specific desensitisation (mites, pollens) that may need a rigorous indication.