Meibomian Gland Dysfunction

This week my post is about Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD). The meibomian glands are the glands within the eyelid that produce oils found in tears, in MGD the glands do not produce these oils as effectively. Without oil, tears mainly consist of water and evaporate quickly, causing dry eyes. MGD is also referred to as 'evaporative dry eye' for this very reason. While shadowing an optometrist over the summer I read in an optomology magazine (fun stuff I know) about a new treatment being proposed called Lipiflow, and now the treatment has obtained FDA approval and has been used for patient care. Basically the instrument (as shown in the above image) heats up the eyelid and massages at the same time, this allows any obstructions within the meibomian glands to break loose and allow the glands to produce oil once more. The procedure takes about 12 minutes per eye and the effects last for about a year (much cheaper than eye drops) according to the video (found on webpage below). However there is one caveat, this procedure cannot help those whose meibomian glands have atrophied, only those whose glands are not producing oils due to blockages.
http://medgadget.com/2011/07/lipiflow-for-meibomian-gland-dysfunction-and-evaporative-dry-eye-gets-cleared-in-u-s.html