Going ‘back to basics’ effective for most cases of blepharitis

Staying with my “back to basics” theme after returning from my all-too-short summer sojourn at the beach, I thought it appropriate to talk about one of the most fundamental problems we face when treating dry eye syndrome and ocular surface disease: blepharitis. When I think back on my days as a resident at New York University, the most indelible memory I have is explaining blepharitis to patients — what it is and how it is treated — and how many times I recited the same story each day in the eye clinics. Blepharitis probably taught me more about patient communication than any other single thing in my residency.