Suggest Treatment For Swollen Eyelid

Posted on Thu, 23 Jun 2016

Question: I had hot butter splash into my eye earlier tonight. About 3 hours ago. I rinsed for several minutes with cold water. Then there was a sensation of saltiness in the eye, throat and nose. Now the pain has subsided but the eyelid is swelling and it feels as if I have a foreign particle in the eye. I have a feeling it will swell shut overnight. I have been using cold compresses, which brought some relief. what else can I do? We live in the mountains and there is no immediate medical help available within a 75 mile radius.

Answered by Dr. Harish Naik (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Lubricant eye drops, need ophthalmoscopic examination

Detailed Answer:
Hi
Welcome.
I have gone through your query.
It is difficult to comment on it without examination, so if possible I would suggest you to upload the pictures, I'll go through it and I'll have general idea how severe it is.

It may damage the cornea, so closer examination is required to comment on it.

Firstly, splash a large amount of cold, not room temperature water in both eyes and continue irrigating both eyes for not less than 15 minutes. Start a lubricating eye drop in both eyes and a good idea would be to refrigerate the bottle so the medication is cold when instilled. Use a preservative free medication like Refresh tears. For the eyelids, use ice packs on both eyes and leave them on intermittently for at least an hour.

Need on the antibiotic eye drop can be decided on close examination, ophthalmoscopic examination is required to see detailed impact of it.

This provisional advice provided by me is based entirely on the input provided to me. I would suggest examination by the doctor.

I hope this suggestion might be of some help to you. Please accept my answer in case you do not have further queries.
Take care.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Deepak