Conservative treatment of chalazia

Recently, several authors have revived interest in intralesional corticosteroid therapy of chalazia. Most ophthalmologists use surgical excision to treat these lesions. We feel that before either method is advocated as definitive, a more conservative therapeutic approach should be evaluated. In an attempt to determine the effectiveness of conservative therapy, we studied consecutive patients with chalazia treated only by lid hygiene. The study consisted of 37 patients, 19 men and 18 women, ages 14 to 62 with a total of 47 chalazia. Thirty-six chalazia resolved with conservative therapy; 4 chalazia remained the same, and in two patients, small pyogenic granulomas developed. These figures indicate that conservative therapy was approximately 80% effective in treating chalazia.