Tarsal glands

Tarsal glands: 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. Also known as the meibomian glands, these glands can become inflamed, a condition termed meibomianitis or meibomitis (diagnosed recently in this writer). 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 or tarsoconjunctival glands.