Horner’s Syndrome is characterized by drooping of eyelids on one side of the face. Also there is a decrease in perspiration and the pupil gets constricted (small). The cause of Horner’s syndrome is distortion of the nerve fibers that connect the brain and the eye. Horner’s syndrome can affect people of any age.
Causes of Horner’s Syndrome
Few nerve fibres that connect the brain and the eye take a circuitous route. These nerve fibers go down the spinal cord from the brain. They exit the spinal cord and enter into the chest. Then they go back up the neck beside the cartoid artery and through the skull enter into the eye. Horner’s syndrome is named after Johann Friedrich Horner. He was a Swiss ophthalmologist. He was the first to describe the syndrome in 1869.
If any disruption occurs in these nerve pathway, it results in Horner’s syndrome. Horner’s syndrome may occur in two ways – either on its own or caused by another disorder. For example, disorders of the neck, brain, spinal cord, head such as swollen lymph glands in the neck (cervical adenopathy), lung cancer, dissection of the carotid or aorta artery, injuries and a thoraic aortic aneurysm. Also this syndrome may affect a new born baby (congenital).
Symptoms of Horner’s Syndrome
If the nerve fibers are disrupted on one side of the face, Horner’s syndrome symptoms are evident only on that side. The symptoms include a constricted pupil (miosis) and a drooping upper eyelid (ptosis). Another symptom is that the affected side of the face will sweat less than normal. Very rarely it appears flushed. If a child is born with Horner’s syndrome, his/her iris will permanently remain blue- gray.
