Conservative Treatment of Chalazion in Pediatric Patients

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of conservative treatment for chalazion in pediatric patients. The authors retrospectively reviewed 101 chalazions in 91 children aged younger than 15 years at the authors' clinic. Patients were divided into 3 groups by their ages at the time of conservative or surgical treatment: 30 patients aged 2 and under (group A), 38 patients aged 3 to 6 (group B), and 23 patients aged 7 to 15 (group C). Initially, conservative treatment was administered, then incision and curettage were performed if it proved ineffective. Data included sex, age, number of lesions, position of lesions, size of lesions, time to resolution after treatment, and presence of complications for each group; comparative analysis was conducted. The success rate of conservative treatment was 85.7% (78/91): 96.7% (29/30) in group A, 86.8% (33/38) in group B, and 69.7% (16/23) in group C (P = 0.022). The mean age of the patients and the mean lesion size showed a significant difference between the conservative group and the surgery group (P = 0.047 and 0.009, respectively). Conservative treatment of chalazion is an effective first-line treatment option for uncomplicated and small chalazion in pediatric patients. The authors should consider starting patients on a trial of conservative therapy versus invasive therapy based on the size of the lesion, the duration of conservative treatment, and age.