Cloudy eyes can refer to a cloudy appearance, which is manifested by a yellowish and dark eye, or to a cloudy refractive medium, which is manifested by blurred vision.
Cloudy appearance: poor tear film formation can make the eye appear dry and the tear film opaque; a ring of yellowish-gray deposits outside the cornea is a lipid deposit called an age ring; the bulbar conjunctiva is susceptible to environmental irritation and microbial infection, and the growth of lid spots or pterygium can cause local yellowing or congestion, making the eye appear cloudy. The sclera can give the eye a yellow appearance due to a small amount of fatty deposits or banding of mucopolysaccharides.
Refractive media clouding: This often includes corneal scarring, cataracts and vitreous clouding. Corneal scarring is a mark left by corneal trauma or corneal disease that manifests as a blurred or obscured sense of vision. Cataracts are metabolic disorders of the lens that cause the lens to cloud and harden, progressing from gray to yellow to brown-black and eventually liquefying, with the effect on vision worsening as the cataract progresses. Vitreous turbidity is a clouding of the vitreous body due to vitreous degeneration or fundus bleeding into the vitreous body, such as dusty, flocculent, striated, or cloudy, which may not affect vision in mild cases and often appears as floating insect-like or flocculent black shadows.
The cloudiness of the eye can refer to the appearance of cloudiness or refractive media cloudiness, both of which are caused by the aging of the organ, which is a manifestation of aging.