Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!
During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Red eye.
These may include a physical examination or other medical tests.
Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing
your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information
you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
- How long have you noticed the red eye?
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
- Is it one or both eyes?
Why: if only one eye is red, consider trauma, foreign body, corneal ulcer, iritis, viral conjunctivitis, acute glaucoma. Bacterial conjunctivitis usually starts in one eye but quickly spreads to the other eye.
- What was the manner of onset i.e. sudden or acute
Why: e.g. conjunctivitis or iritis usually has a gradual onset; small foreign body will produce a rapid blood shot eye.
- Is the patient less than one month old?
Why: suggests neonatal conjunctivitis and possible causes include Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhea, herpes simplex type 2 and other common bacterial organisms. Both parents must be tested for venereal disease and treated accordingly.
- Is the patient elderly?
Why: elderly patients have an increased risk of acute glaucoma, iritis and herpes zoster of the eye.
- History of exposure to a "red eye" at school, work or home?
Why: suggests bacterial conjunctivitis.
- Have you had a recent cold or running nose recently?
Why: suggests viral or bacterial conjunctivitis.
- Has there been a history of trauma?
Why: to determine risk of intraocular body or orbital fracture.
- Have you been putting any new drops, ointments or cosmetics in or around the eyes?
Why: may suggest allergic conjunctivitis.
- Do you suffer from hay fever?
Why: may suggest allergic conjunctivitis.
- Contact lens wearer?
Why: contact lenses are prone to cause infection of the eye.
- Have you been bitten by a tick?
Why: may suggest Tick typhus or Lyme disease.
- Occupational history?
Why: incidents at work such as injury, welding, foreign bodies, chemicals. Eye strain from prolonged computer work or reading may cause red eyes.
- Past medical history?
Why: Iritis may be caused by inflammatory bowel disease, Ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's Syndrome, Diabetes mellitus, Sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, toxoplasmosis and syphilis.
- Illicit Drug use?
Why: marijuana use can cause bilateral red eyes.
- Alcohol history?
Why: alcohol hangover may cause bilateral red eyes.
Questions your doctor may ask about related symptoms:
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse
your condition. These may include:
- Vision disturbance?
Why: acute glaucoma causes haloes around lights; may have blurred vision with contact hypersensitivity, herpes simplex keratitis, corneal ulcer and acute iritis.
- Eye pain?
Why: Eye pain occurs with iritis, scleritis, episceritis, keratitis, foreign body, glaucoma, cluster headache and herpes zoster. If absence of eye pain may suggest conjunctivitis, marijuana use or alcohol hangover.
- Discharge from eye?
Why: Pus -like discharge with lids sticking together in the morning is typical of bacterial conjunctivitis; watery discharge in viral and allergic conjunctivitis and contact hypersensitivity; reflex wateriness with herpes simplex, corneal ulcer, acute iritis and acute glaucoma.
- Photophobia (intense dislike of light)?
Why: may suggest herpes simplex, corneal ulcer, iritis, welding flash burn and acute glaucoma.
- Watery eyes for sometime beforehand?
Why: suggests viral conjunctivitis that may later become bacterial conjunctivitis.
- Itchy eye?
Why: suggests allergic conjunctivitis either vernal (hay fever) or contact hypersensitivity.
- Facial rash?
Why: may suggest herpes zoster (especially if blister-like rash) or rosacea (if pimple like rash).
- Headache?
Why: may suggest cluster headache as cause of unilateral red watery eye.
» Next page: Types of Red eye
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