[The practice guideline 'The red eye' (first revision) of the Dutch College of General Practitioners; a response from the perspective of the general practitioner].

The revised version of the practice guideline 'The red eye' of the Dutch College ofGeneral Practitioners gives the general practitioner useful information on new insights into diagnosis and therapy for a red eye. An important therapeutic advice is prescribing chloramphenicol ointment instead of fusidic acid ointment in the case of bacterial conjunctivitis after one-week treatment without positive results, since 80% of the conjunctivitis causing bacteria does not react to fusidic acid. A slit lamp is helpful in the diagnosis of a case of red eye, but is not present in every general practitioner's office. Joint efforts of a group of general practitioners in obtaining such a slit lamp may reinforce the diagnosis in general practice.