Elevated blood pressure (remember to measure!) or other underlying treatable cause may lie behind sugillation.
Aetiology
Suggillation usually develops spontaneously.
Elevated blood pressure, anticoagulant therapy, conjunctivitis, ocular trauma, a rheumatic or connective tissue disease or epidemic nephropathy are, however, possible underlying conditions.
Symptoms and findings
The patient is usually totally symptomless and recognizes the suggillation incidentally. Sometimes the eye may feel stiff or coarse.
The size of the sugillation varies, but typically it is extensive and bright red in colour throughout (picture 1). Sometimes the bleeding area is only narrow and sickle-shaped.
Treatment
Medicines do not help. The patient can be told that the normalization of conjunctival colour usually takes 1 to 2 weeks.
Moisturizing eye drops help against a possible sensation of a foreign body in the eye.