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Summary
Conjunctivitis is the medical name for pink eye. It involves inflammation of the outer layer of the eye and inside of the eyelid. It can cause swelling, itching, burning, discharge, and redness. Causes include:
- Bacterial or viral infection
- Allergies
- Substances that cause irritation
- Contact lens products, eye drops, or eye ointments
Pink eye usually does not affect vision. Infectious pink eye can easily spread from one person to another. The infection will clear in most cases without medical care, but bacterial pink eye needs treatment with antibiotic eye drops or ointment.
NIH: National Eye Institute
Diagnosis and Tests
- Dilating Eye Drops (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus)
Treatments and Therapies
- Choosing Wisely When It Comes to Eye Care: Antibiotics for Pink Eye (American Academy of Ophthalmology)
Specifics
- What Are Eye Allergies? (American Academy of Ophthalmology)
Images
- Pink Eye (Conjunctivitis) (VisualDX)
Statistics and Research
- Eye Health Data and Statistics (National Eye Institute)
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Conjunctivitis (National Institutes of Health)
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Parental perspectives and concerns regarding exotropia surgery and comparison with clinicians'...
- Article: Use of Large Language Models to Assess the Likelihood of Epidemics...
- Article: Acute Conjunctivitis among Patients Visiting the Outpatient Department of Ophthalmology in...
- Pink Eye -- see more articles
Find an Expert
Children
- Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) in Newborns (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
- Pinkeye (Conjunctivitis) (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
Teenagers
- Pinkeye (Conjunctivitis) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
Patient Handouts
- Allergic conjunctivitis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Conjunctivitis or pink eye (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Vernal conjunctivitis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish