What causes the whites of the eye to appear yellow?

Lee R. Duffner, MD on behalf of American Academy of Ophthalmology's EyeSmart

Ophthalmology

The most common cause of a yellow cast to the whites of the eyes is thickening of the clear membrane (the bulbar conjunctiva) that covers the whites of the eyes. The name of such a thickening is pinguecula. Pingueculae form when the eye has been subjected to much ultraviolet radiation in sunlight, so ultraviolet-absorbing sunglasses are preventative. Less commonly, the entire white of the eye can become yellow in a person who has liver failure with an elevated level of a chemical called bilirubin in the blood.

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