A Case of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction after Cosmetic Eyelid Tattooing Procedure

Bo Ram Seol; Ji Won Kwon; Won Ryang Wee; Young Keun Han

doi:10.3341/jkos.2013.54.8.1309

Journal List > J Korean Ophthalmol Soc > v.54(8) > 1009465

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Seol, Kwon, Wee, and Han: A Case of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction after Cosmetic Eyelid Tattooing Procedure

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2013;54(8):1309-1313.

Published online: 7 September 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2013.54.8.1309

A Case of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction after Cosmetic Eyelid Tattooing Procedure

Bo Ram Seol, MD^1,², Ji Won Kwon, MD, PhD³, Won Ryang Wee, MD, PhD^1,², Young Keun Han, MD, PhD^1,^4,

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea

³Department of Ophthalmology, Myongji Hospital, Kwandong University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea

⁴Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul Metropolitan Government-Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Seoul, Korea

Address reprint requests to Young Keun Han, MD, PhD Department of Ophthalmology, SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center #20 Boramaero5-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 156-707, Korea Tel: 82-2-870-2114, Fax: 82-2-831-0714, E-mail: eye129@paran.com

Received 12 October 20126 March 2013 Accepted 5 June 2013

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

To report a case of meibomian gland dysfunction as a chronic complication of eyelid tattooing and the corneal epithelial defect as an acute complication of eyelid tattooing well healed with proper treatment.

Case summary

A 31-year-old woman presented with severe eye pain, irritation and epiphora in both eyes. The patient un-derwent an eyelid tattooing procedure 2 hours before and dark pigments were placed on the inner eyelid margin. Slit lamp examination showed conjunctival injection and inferior corneal epithelial defect in both eyes. After 2 months, dry eye symp-tom still remained although the cornea was completely epithelialized. After 1 year, the patient improved completely, but still showed decreased tear film breakup time (TBUT).

Conclusions

Due to the increased number of people who undergo cosmetic eyelid tattooing procedures, the number of re-ports associated with complications has increased and acute complications such as corneal epithelial defect can occur. Moreover, chronic discomfort associated with dry eye syndrome can occur when pigmentation is placed on the eyelid inner margin and lead to the destruction of meibomian glands. Thus, eyelid tattooing should be performed after careful consid-eration of possible complications.

Keywords: Corneal epithelial defect, Cosmetic eyelid tattooing, Meibomian gland dysfunction

References

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Figure 1.

Photograph shows a severe epithelial defect at inferior cornea in the right eye (A) and in the left eye (B) on the day of cos-metic tattooing.

Figure 2.

Photograph shows cosmetic tattoo at inner margin of eyelid involving meibomian gland orifices. Lid margin injection and telangiectasis were shown in the right eye (A) and in the left eye (B) 3 days after eyelid tattooing.

Figure 3.

Photograph shows remained pigmentation at inner margin of eyelid and severe meibomian gland plugging in the right eye (A) and in the left eye (B) 2 months after eyelid tattooing.

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