Abstract
Purpose: :
Eyelid surgery is among the most commonly performed operations in the U.S. There are no studies that evaluate the effects of eyelid surgery on intraocular pressure (IOP). The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship, if any, between eyelid surgery and IOP.
Methods: :
Retrospective observational case series comparing IOP measured by applanation tonometry of 46 eyes from 27 patients who underwent eyelid surgery within a 12-month period. A control group consisted of 8 contralateral eyes of 8 patients undergoing unilateral eyelid surgery. Control group was chosen based on 1) strict inclusion criteria of study--that is, these patients were the only group that matched the frequency of IOP measurements of the study population and 2) otherwise healthy normotensive non-surgical patients typically do not have recorded IOP measurements at such frequent intervals. IOPs recorded were compared to average IOP of 3 tonometry measurements prior to surgery at 3-month intervals. Surgeries included 30% ptosis repair, 30% blepharoplasty, 22% ectropion repair, and 18% entropion repair. 50% of all eyes had upper lid surgery, while 50% had lower lid surgery. 70% had bilateral surgery and 30% had unilateral surgery. Excluded were patients who had intraocular surgery 1 year before or after eyelid surgery, and/or patients lost to follow-up. Average age of patients was 74.9 years (range 56-88 years) in the study group and 77.5 (range 64-88years) in the control group.
Results: :
There was no statistically significant difference between IOP before and after surgery in either the study group or control group. In the study group, at 3-months post-op, average IOP change was +0.75mmHg (p=0.08). At 6-month, 9-month, and 12-month intervals, average IOP change was -0.01 mmHg (p=0.49), -0.23mmHg (p=0.33) and -0.53mmHg (p=0.16), respectively. In the control group, the 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and 12-month average IOP change was +0.07mmHg (p=0.41), +0.07mmHg (p=0.42), -0.05mmHg (p=0.41), and +0.07mmHg (p=0.39), respectively.
Conclusions: :
Eyelid surgery has no statistically significant impact on IOP. However, there is a trend toward increased IOP (albeit very slight) within the first 3 months, with return to baseline IOP by 6 months. Further studies must be performed to confirm these findings. Specifically, additional data is needed to obtain statistically significant results. Our study showed that eyelid surgery does not meaningfully impact IOP, but suggests there may indeed be a transient small relationship between eyelid surgery and IOP in the short term.
Keywords: intraocular pressure • eyelid