Stye and chalazion

Case history

A 30-year-old man presents with a painful, swollen right eye for the past day. He reports minor pain on palpation of the eyelid and denies any history of trauma, crusting, or change in vision. He has no history of allergies or any eye conditions and denies the use of any new soaps, lotions, or creams. On exam, he has localized tenderness to palpation and erythema on the midline of the lower eyelid near the lid margin. The remainder of the physical exam, including the globe, is normal.

Other presentations

Styes (hordeola) typically present as acute, painful infectious swellings of the eyelid. Chalazia are acute or chronic noninfectious inflammatory swellings and are often indistinguishable from hordeola. A chronic chalazion may persist as an area of focal eyelid swelling without associated signs of infection or inflammation. Chalazia may become so large as to press on the globe and cause alterations in vision.

[Figure caption and citation for the preceding image starts]: Left upper lid internal hordeolum with limited cellulitisGupta A, Stacey S, Amissah-Arthur KN. Eyelid lumps and lesions. BMJ. 2014;348:g3029. [Citation ends].[Figure caption and citation for the preceding image starts]: Left lower lid external hordeolumCreative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) [Citation ends].