Meibomitis

Inflammation of the little glands in the tarsus (part of the framework) of 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. These glands are as called the meibomian glands. Inflammation of them is, as mentioned, termed meibomitis or, alternatively, meibomianitis. Chronic inflammation leads to cysts of the meibomian glands 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.

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mei·bo·mi·tis (mi″bo-miґtis) meibomianitis.