Graves eye disease

[conrad716]

Question if anyone knows- once Graves eye disease is done is it gone forever?  Will the swelling and eye problems come back?

[conrad716]

Thank you

[ChitChatNine]

I don't know your answer but wanted to stop by and say hello

WELCOME to the COMMUNITY!

C~

[tm514]

As far as I understand it, there is an "active" phase when the antibodies are attacking the eye muscles, then the disease "burns out" and causes no more damage.  The bulging (if that's what you mean by swelling) occurs because the antibodies attack the muscles of the eye, causing a fat like substance to be deposited.  The fatty substance doesn't disappear once the antibodies stop attacking,  there is no "cure" - the swelling and eye muscle problems are there to stay and can only be repaired through surgery if the issues are problematic.  Also, there is always a small chance that the antibodies will re-activate and start causing problems again (I asked my doctor very much hoping for a "no, this will never come back", the answer I got was "it could" - I'm not really sure if he was being honest or covering his backside against the rare chance it does come back).