Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 11/24/2009
It is quite possible that for several days after the surgery the patient will have dry, itchy eyes. Also, the eyes may be sensitive to light, that is, bright light may cause pain in the eyes. Also, blurry or double vision may occur....
Scarring is always possible with any surgery that disrupts the skin. Infection and inflammation may occur with any surgery and eyelid surgery is no different. Remember that it may be difficult for the eyelids to appear perfectly symmetrical, although this is the goal of all cosmetic blepharoplasties.
Scarring is always possible with any surgery that disrupts the skin. Infection and inflammation may occur with any surgery and eyelid surgery is no different. Remember that it may be difficult for the eyelids to appear perfectly symmetrical, although this is the goal of all cosmetic blepharoplasties.
The most common complication that occurs following surgery for the eyelids is undercorrection. Undercorrection occurs when too little eyelid is removed during the procedure or the surgery did not raise the lid enough. General anesthesia tends to make the eyelid appear less “droopy” so if the area is not clearly marked prior to surgery, the lid may not be fully resected. If significant scarring occurs it may lead to excess skin over the surgical wound. This could lead to some ptosis even after the surgery. The treatment of choice for undercorrection is to perform a second surgery.
Overcorrection or removing too much eyelid only rarely occurs. If it does occur, it may or may not require surgical correction to fix it. In the first several days after surgery, if overcorrection exists, the eyelid can be stretched and massaged in order to loosen the skin and allow the healing eyelid to cover more of the surface of the eye. Rarely the eyelid may not be able to cover the entire eyeball when the patient attempts to close the eye. This condition, called lagophthalmos, could be permanent and the possibility of such an outcome should be discussed with your surgeon prior to the procedure.
Improper position of the lid crease may occur. This means that the eyelid folds too high or too low on the eyeball. While a lid crease can be lowered fairly easily through an additional surgery, it cannot be raised with the same ease. If the lid crease needs to be raised in one eye it is often easier to lower the crease in the other eye to provide symmetry.
It is possible that the cornea of the eye is inadvertently damaged as the sutures moves across the eye. This can be quite painful but will heal in most cases. If the sutures are exposed to the surface of the eye, a protective contact lens specially designed to cover the cornea may be used until the sutures dissolve or are removed.
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A graphic animation of what causes fat and sagging eyelids. The video describes what takes place during eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty).
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Blepharoplasty can be both a functional and cosmetic surgical procedure intended to reshape the upper eyelid or lower eyelid by the removal or repositioning of excess tissue as well as by reinforcement of surrounding muscles and tendons. When an advanced amount of upper eyelid skin is present, the skin may hang over the eyelashes and cause a loss of peripheral vision. The outer and upper parts of the visual field are most commonly affected and the condition may cause difficulty with activities such as driving or reading. In this circumstance, upper eyelid blepharoplasty is performed to improve peripheral vision. Patients with a less severe amount of excess skin may have a similar procedure performed for cosmetic reasons. Lower eyelid blepharoplasty is almost always done for cosmetic reasons, to improve puffy lower eyelid "bags" and reduce the wrinkling of skin.
Blepharoplasty is performed through external incisions made along the natural skin lines of the eyelids, such as the creases of the upper lids and below the lashes of the lower lids, or from the inside surface of the lower eyelid. Initial swelling and bruising take one to two weeks to resolve but at least several months are needed until the final result becomes stable. Depending upon the scope of the procedure, the operation takes one to three hours to complete.
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