Correction of the Epicanthal Fold with Invisible Scar

ABSTRACT

The epicanthal fold is common natural finding in Asian eyes. It is very common that patients, who look for oriental blephaloplasty for double eye lid, request correction epicanthal fold. It is very often difficult to achieve satisfactory results if the correction of the epicanthal fold is not corrected concomitantly. Many authors described surgical procedures for correction of epicanthal folds. But most of them leave additional scars which tend to be hypertrophic and noriceable. We achieved satisfactory result in epicanthoplasty with invisible scar, using combination of procedures, such as upward incision, double eyelid operation, anchoring suture of the medial upper lid skin to the medial canthal tendon, trans-nasal root subcutaneous mattress suture of the epicanthal fold itself and combined rhinoplasty. For past six years (1998 to 2003) 17 patients have been operated with one of these mentioned procedures. The mean follow up was 4months (2weeks to 6months). All patients were satisfied and no major complication was noted. This method can be one of the effective procedures for correcting the Asian epicanthal fold for avoiding potential visible scar and ancillary procedure in double eye lid blephaloplasty.