The role of Helicobacter pylori in the development of inflammatory eyelid diseases

Background. Blepharitis is one of the most common eye diseases: it accounts for 23.3 % of the total number of patients with inflammatory eye diseases worldwide. 40.2 % of these patients seek outpatient care. The incidence of blepharitis is 1.5–2 times higher in women than in men. The leading factors in the development of blepharitis are both general (gastrointestinal tract diseases, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, systemic use of corticosteroids, etc.) and local (atopic and seborrheic dermatitis or rosacea). The main causative agents of this disease are Staphylococcus spp. (S. aureus, S. epidermidis). As a rule, the disease manifests itself in patients aged 30–50 years, while in women aged 40 to 45 years, 80 % of blepharitis are of staphylococcal origin. Currently, there are reports in the literature about apotential link between Helicobacter pylori infection and the development of chronic blepharitis, but the data are very contradictory.

The aim of the study. To analyze the features of the relationship between Helicobacter pylori and inflammatory eyelid diseases.

Materials and methods. We conducted a search and analysis of literary sources in the Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar databases, as well as in the Russian Science Citation Index database for the period from 2000 to 2022.

Conclusion. The review analyzes and summarizes the pathogenic mechanisms of the relationship between chronic blepharitis and Helicobacter pylori. We carried out an analysis of numerous studies, which give grounds to assume a possible role of Helicobacter pylori infection in the development and course of inflammatory eyelid diseases (blepharitis). The main pathogenic aspects in these studies are: chronic inflammation of the eyelids and gastrointestinal tract (antigenic mimicry); excretion of toxic substances from the oral cavity (ammonia, hydrogen nitrite, hydrogen cyanide and other substances causing indirect inflammation of the conjunctiva and eyelid cartilage); the presence of Helicobacter pylori in tears.

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