Surviving SJS

For those who survive SJS, there are serious and permanent complications:

• Stricture of the Esophagus
• Asthma or C.O.P.D.
• Chronic Fatigue
• Arthritis
• Environmental and Food Allergy
• Permanent Scarring of the Skin
• Difficulty with Regulating Body Temperature as the pores are scarred shut causing overheating
• Ocular Surface Disease and Dry Eye leading to blindness
• Cardiac Diseases such as Myocarditis

Without doubt the permanent damage to the eyes and supportive ocular tissue is the most medically challenging complication. Severe dry eye, scarring of the cornea and numerous other ocular surface diseases are common. Frequently the eyelids become permanently grafted onto the eyeball as the "burnt" inner eyelids heal, preventing movement of the eye or closure of the eyelids.

The formation of hard, scaly, scar tissue inside the eyelids induces intense friction on the eye, causing blood vessels to grow into the cornea. As the cornea becomes thinner, excruciating ulcers develop leaving permanent scar tissue. Loss of stem cells cause the cornea to become opaque, inflammation causes cataract and diseases of the conjunctiva are progressive. Blindness can be caused by any of these eye conditions individually, but collectively they are viewed by ophthalmologists as THE MOST TORTUOUS grouping of ocular conditions and survivors endure agonizing pain, seeking darkness and hiding from light of any kind.

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