Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about conjunctivitis.

And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic, you can follow along at zero tofinals.com slash conjunctiveitis or in the ophthalmology section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's jump straight in.

Conjunctivitis is defined as inflammation of the conjunctiva.

And the conjunctiva is a thin layer of tissue that covers the inside of the eyelids

and the sclure of the eyeball itself. And there are three main types,

bacterial, viral and allergic conjunctivitis. So how does conjunctivitis present? Well, it presents

with unilateral or bilateral red eyes.

They may be bloodshot, there may be an itchy or gritty sensation, and they're usually a discharge

from the eye.

Conjunctivitis does not cause pain, photothobia or reduced visual acuity.

They may get blurry vision when the eye is covered with discharge.

However, when the discharge is cleared away, the visual acuity should be normal.

So if you meet a patient who's got these symptoms but they have pain, photopoeia or reduce visual acuity,

think of something other than conjunctivitis. Bacterial conjunctivitis presents with a prurulent discharge,

so you'll see a green discharge with pus, and they'll also have an inflamed conjunctiva, and it's typically worse in the

morning when the eyelids can be stuck together. It usually starts in one eye and it can spread to the

other eye, and it's highly contagious. Viral conjunctivitis is common and usually presents with a clear discharge. It's often associated

with other symptoms of a viral infection such as a dry cough, sore throat and a block nose.

And you may find tender pre-oricular lymph nodes, and these are small lymph nodes in front of the ears.

Viral conjunctivitis is also very contagious.

This is a good point to talk about the differential diagnosis of an acute red eye.

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