Strategies for simultaneous double eyelid blepharoplasty in Asian patients with congenital blepharoptosis.

BACKGROUND: Most patients with blepharoptosis prefer to undergo a double eyelid operation and a ptosis repair simultaneously to achieve the optimal cosmetic and functional result. However, it is difficult to achieve symmetry in patients with blepharoptosis.

METHODS: Surgery was performed on the levator aponeurosis or frontalis muscle to correct blepharoptosis while double eyelid surgery was simultaneously performed to correct blephroptosis in 264 patients over the past 15 years. This report describes 39 representative cases of unilateral congenital blepharoptosis and 30 representative cases of bilateral congenital blepharoptosis. In cases of unilateral ptosis with good or fair levator function, a levator resection or plication was performed, and the position of the lid margin was adjusted to 1 to 2 mm below the upper limbus. Cases of severe unilateral blepharoptosis were corrected by frontalis muscle flap, orbicularis oculi muscle flap, or frontalis myofacial flap, and the height of the double eyelid was created to be 1 to 2 mm less than the height on the normal side. The position of the lid margin was adjusted to the level of the superior limbus, and the height of the lid crease of the ptotic eye was determined to be according to that on the nonptotic side. For bilateral ptosis patients with equal levator function, the height of the double eyelid was designed symmetrically. Bilateral blepharoptosis patients with unequal levator muscle function should have the double eyelids on both sides created the same as in normal cases, and they must be grafted in proportion to the severity of the blepharoptosis. If the results are unpredictable, the two-stage operation should be performed.

RESULTS: Only 30% of the eyelids in this study were perfectly symmetric after the blepharoptosis operation, with 70% asymmetric. These 70% showed good symmetry immediately after surgery, but asymmetry occurred 6 months after the operation.

CONCLUSION: In blepharoptosis surgery, different techniques for double eyelids must be applied according to the method of ptosis correction used. Usually, the height of the double eyelid on the ptotic side should be a little less than the normal double eyelid height on the nonptotic side. However, it is difficult to achieve symmetric double eyelids in blepharoptosis patients.