Glands, meibomian
Little glands in the eyelids that make a lubricant which they discharge through their tiny openings in the edges of the lids. The lubricant is a fatty substance called sebum characteristic of sebaceous glands. The meibomian glands can become inflamed, a condition termed meibomianitis or meibomitis. Chronic inflammation leads to cysts of the meibomian glands (also called chalazions). The meibomian glands are named for a 17th-century German anatomist Heinrich Meibom (who must have had good eyes to see these minute structures). They are also known as the palpebral glands, tarsal glands, or tarsoconjunctival glands.
Medical dictionary.
2011.