Effects of common eye diseases in children and their treatment measures on ocular surface homeostasis: A review

Abstract

Ocular surface homeostasis plays a vital role in maintaining of eye health. Dry eye disease is one of the prominent and typical manifestations of disruption of ocular surface homeostasis that leads to the worsening of ocular surface homeostasis that leads to the worsening of ocular surface disease when it interacts with other pathogenic factors. However, disruption in ocular surface homeostasis in children is often overlooked because of the current methods of assessing ocular surface homeostasis. This review summarizes the main factors affecting ocular surface homeostasis in children, with the aim of drawing the attention of clinicians to the disruption of ocular surface homeostasis in children when dealing with such diseases. Ocular surface homeostasis involves several interrelated components, each of which plays a nonnegligible role in ocular surface homeostasis. Unlike adults, children have a stronger lacrimal gland secretion capacity and milder symptoms when there is a slight disruption of the ocular surface homeostasis. In addition, children’s expressive abilities were weaker. Therefore, dry eye in children is often ignored by doctors and parents, and clinicians should pay more attention to the protection of ocular surface homeostasis when treating children with these diseases. Therefore, there is a need for diagnostic criteria for dry eye disease specific to children.