Patients are often presented with a red eye in an outpatient department of a hospital or in the clinic of a general practitioner. Due to its diverse etiology and outcome, it is important that the patient is properly evaluated and referred to the ophthalmologist if required. There are few basic steps for evaluating such patients by a general practitioner that may help them in deciding if the patient should start receiving a treatment or to be referred to a specialist. The following article delineates how details of history and general observation can help a clinician to achieve a diagnostic decision.
Obtaining patient's history and overall assessment of red-eye cases are critical for the decision for appropriate referral of the patient to an ophthalmologist. The following questions can be useful to take patient's history and deciding on the etiology of the disease. Is vision affected?…
