Conjunctivitis in Childhood – Board-Style Questions

What this deck covers

conjunctivitis in childhood in 18 board-style clinical cases with worked explanations. Each case gives you a clinical vignette, four options, the correct answer, and an explanation of why each of the other three is wrong, with the guideline or textbook it follows named on the answer.

Board-style teaching questions for paediatricians and trainees preparing for paediatric board, MRCPCH and licensing examinations. Written from published guidelines and standard paediatric textbooks, with the source named on every answer.

The 18 cases, in order

1. Gummed shut by dawn
2. A lump by the tragus
3. Rubbing in spring
4. The eye that will not move
5. Waiting it out
6. When drops earn their place
7. Behind a lens
8. A cough weeks later
9. A branching stain
10. The tube in the cupboard
11. Cobblestones overhead
12. Lashes turned inward
13. Back to the classroom
14. Before the pollen arrives
15. Greasy lids and lumps
16. Throat, fever and eyes
17. When to pick up the phone
18. Look under the lid

Diagnoses and management options tested

Across the 18 cases you are asked to choose between options such as: A tender node felt just in front of the ear, A tender swelling in front of the ear on that side, A bacterial infection of both eyes at once, A stringy thread of mucus lying in the lower fornix, Bathe the lids with cooled boiled water and review if worse, A course of oral antibiotic syrup taken three times each day for a week, Seasonal allergic disease affecting the right eye only, It stops the other eye from becoming infected in the next few days, A dendritic ulcer caused by herpes simplex virus, Steroid ointment always leaves a permanent stain on the skin of the lids, Chronic viral disease that has failed to clear, A single episode of bacterial infection left untreated, He may attend, with hand washing and no sharing of towels, An antibiotic drop taken four times daily during June and July.

Clinical pearls from this deck

• Lashes sealed overnight: think bacterial conjunctivitis.
• Watery eye plus a node by the ear: a virus.
• Itch every spring: allergy, not infection.
• Painful eye movement is never simple conjunctivitis.
• Simple conjunctivitis: lid hygiene beats a prescription.
• Drops are for the eye that will not settle.

Work through the deck once for recognition, then again a week later to test yourself — each question gives the answer and explains why every other option fails.

More from this system: all ENT and ophthalmology case decks · pediatric reference values.