Q. During revision eye surgery, are the sutures left in the eye removed before the procedure?

Hello, this is AB Plastic Surgery.

I wrote this post to answer the questions you have been wondering about.

Q. During revision eye surgery, are the sutures left in the eye removed before the procedure?

A. Eye surgery to create a double eyelid can be broadly divided into non-incisional and incisional methods. In both non-incisional and incisional procedures, sutures remain inside the eye to create adhesions and secure the line. Even when eye correction is performed at the same time, sutures remain to connect the muscle, fascia, and tarsal plate. You may be concerned when hearing that sutures remain, but there is no problem with these sutures remaining inside the eye. This is because thin monofilament sutures are used, and the actual volume of sutures that remain is very small.

Then, when undergoing revision eye surgery, are the existing sutures removed? To put it simply, if the double eyelid line needs to be lowered, or if the existing sutures become naturally exposed during surgery, they are removed.

To lower the line, the previously fixed higher double eyelid line must be loosened, so the existing sutures are removed. (In practice, it is difficult to remove the existing sutures while performing a non-incisional procedure, so incisional methods are often used when lowering the line.) If revision eye surgery is performed with an incisional method, the existing sutures inside the eye become exposed during the incision and surgical process, so the exposed sutures are removed as the surgery proceeds.

In the case of a simple revision to raise the double eyelid line, the fold is created along the area where the line is set higher, so there is no need to remove the remaining sutures below. Of course, if there is discomfort caused by the existing sutures, they are removed before proceeding with surgery.

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Thank you.