Xanthelasma is a type of skin disorder that occurs usually near the corner of the upper eyelid in the form of yellow-colored patches that can be in elliptical shape or look stretched in edges. When touched, these patches will give a feeling of softness and partly solid existence with slightly changed texture. This disease alarms a warning bell to the affected person that his/her cholesterol level has increased to such an extent that excessive fats are accumulating and forming yellow patches near eyelids. Since high cholesterol can cause serious heart problem, the affected person should immediately rush to doctor for thorough check-up of his cardiac system.

Both males and females are prone to this skin disorder but small kids remain unaffected because it usually targets those whose age exceeds 15 years. Similarly, the disease can occur in all types of skin. The appearance of xanthelasma actually affects your looks and hence you would like to get rid of it as soon as possible. However, even after removal of this complication, there is no guarantee that it will not reappear again.

Xanthelasma Symptoms

The person suffering from xanthelasma does not feel any type of itch, pain or inflammation on the affected areas and neither the disease pose threat of cancer or any other serious problem. After certain period, these patches may either expand or tend to commingle. Although rare, but it is possible that the affected person may not close his eyes properly as patches expands or the upper eyelid may droop owing to weakness or even muscle paralysis.

Xanthelasma Causes

When there occurs a disorder in lipids in an individual’s body, xanthelasma is more likely to appear. In fact, the sudden occurrence of xanthelasma can happen when too much of lipids are present in the blood and this is common in young people. Sometimes, genes are also responsible to carry this disease to generation after generation in a family.

Diagnosis of Xanthelasma

The color of the patches and its appearance near the eyelids are enough to comprehend that a person is affected from xanthelasma. However, sometimes the symptoms of xanthelasma resemble with other skin disorders like syringoma in which zits appear near lower eyelids or milia, which forms in lumps when sebaceous glands are blocked. Still, the doctor can distinguish the three complications by their colors as patches in xanthelasma are yellowish while zits is syringoma are skin colored and lumps in milia are white. The doctor may take out a sample of the skin from the affected area as well as conduct laboratory test of the blood serum.

Xanthelasma Treatment

In some cases, especially during initial stage, xanthelasma vanishes after a certain period of occurrence without any medical treatment but is advisable to go to the doctor as soon as the symptoms of the disease become evident. To treat the disease, the doctor can adopt a simple method in which liquid nitrogen is not only used to check the further advancement of the patches but in the meantime, it kills the fatty materials. The doctor will again take the sample of removed fats to conduct a laboratory test and if he finds that increased cholesterol was the major reason for the occurrence of the disease, then he would ask the patient to control diet and avoid fatty foods to bring the cholesterol level down. The doctor can also give medicines to reduce abundant lipids.

Similarly, excision is another effective method to xanthelasma removal and the scar appeared after the treatment usually mixes with the tissues around the eyelid. Laser therapy is also used to get rid of the patches but it may produce side effect like slight change in pigmentation in the affected area. While, if electrodesiccation is opted, then the doctor would have to repeat it for a couple of times to achieve better result.