A hot new treatment for MGD

Practitioners have to deal with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) on a daily basis. It is a major cause of evaporative dry eye symptoms and there are many approaches to its management. These range from the direct expression of meibum from blocked glands in practice, and the use of heat and pressure (typically through a mask) to soften and expel meibum, through to omega-3 supplementation and the use of a variety of drugs such as tetracyclines to reduce the bacterial load or cyclosporine to influence inflammation.

The persistent nature of the condition and the need for good compliance with the currently accepted treatment options makes MGD a stubborn problem to address. Any treatment that might be applied by a practitioner and offer a longer term solution should be viewed with interest. Intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy has been used for some years in the cosmetics industry for removal of skin lesions such as telangiectasia, port-wine stains and haemangiomas. The technique has also been used in the management of severe facial erythema in patients with acne rosacea. In these patients, it was noticed that there also appeared to be some improvement in their MGD and it is from this serendipitous finding that an IPL treatment tailored for MGD was developed.