Blepharoptosis correction: repositioning the levator aponeurosis.

Abstract

Blepharoplasty remains one of the most popular surgical procedures in Asia. The most common patient complaint leading to a blepharoplasty is limited eye opening causing a narrowing of the palpebral fissure. The typical Asian eye is characterized by puffiness, lack of a supratarsal fold in the upper eyelid, and a narrow palpebral fissure, exhibiting a tired and sleepy appearance. Almost all such patients believe that a simple double-eyelid operation is able to make the eye look bigger with eversion of the eyelashes into a more charming configuration. Some of these patients actually have mild to moderate blepharoptosis, which can present both functional and aesthetic problems. Numerous surgical procedures have been developed to correct ptosis because proper correction can be difficult to achieve. The authors found abnormal lateral deviation of the levator aponeurosis in patients with blepharoptosis and suggest that this abnormality is a major cause of blepharoptosis, particularly in Asians. The authors assessed the effectiveness of a levator aponeurosis medial repositioning technique rather than levator resection or levator plication for mild or moderate ptosis. No disadvantage was attributed to this technique when it was used to correct 87 patients with mild ptosis. Eighty of the 87 patients achieved a good result with the first operation. Undercorrection was observed in 6 patients, and a hematoma was corrected in 1 patient. However, no other major complications related to the technique were encountered. Herein the authors describe their operative technique and present the long-term follow-up results. The authors propose that anatomic repositioning of a laterally deviated levator aponeurosis using the described repositioning technique is highly effective for correcting mild ptosis and can be applied during most surgical blepharoptosis procedures in Asian patients.