Blepharoplasty is one of the most popular operations of all the aesthetic surgical procedures. Many surgical techniques for correction of aging have been developed with detailed eyelid anatomical consideration. The redundant skin of the eyelids is not the only cause of aging eyelid. The decision of whether to perform a blepharoplasty is based upon considerations of a number of physical characteristics, including excess eyelid skin, muscle hypertrophy, and protrusion of extraorbital fat. The accurate analysis of the deformity, coupled with the patient’s desires, will serve as a guide to toe surgeon for selection of the optimal operative procedures.
Between 1979 and 1986, the authors performed 127 blepharoplasties and the analysis of them was illustrated.
1) Most patients undergoing blepharoplasty are in the age range from 30 to 50 and majority of patients are woman (93%)
2) Most of them underwent surgery for aesthetic and psychological reasons. Some
patients, however, complained of symptoms related to skin lesions such as xanthelasma, syringoma, and milia etc.
3) In upper lid blepharoplasty, skin resection was performed in all patients, but muscle resection in 63% and removal of extraorbital fat in 21%, and the range of width of excised skin was 6-8mm in most cases.
Tarsal fixation was combined in some cases of the patients who wish to have double eyelids or complain of asymmetric eyelids due to previous operation.
In low lid blepharoplasty, skin flap technique and skin-muscle flap technique were used according to case by case.
4) In 26 cases, blephearoplasty was performed in combination with face lift, forehead lift, rhinoplasty or mentoplasty etc. Ancillary procedures which we performed accompanied with blepharoplasty were brow-lift, correction of glabella frown lines, partial resection of lacrimal gland, rasping of prominent lateral supraorbital rim and Kuhnt-Szymanowski procedure for senile ectropion.
5) Postoperatively some degree of lagophthalmos, or the inability to close the lids fully was anticipated, however, this improved rapidly and hypertrophic scar of eyelid wounds was noticed in 3 cases.
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