Another Case of Severe Eyelid Retraction due to Thyroid Eye Disease

This patient has thyroid eye disease for the past 3 years and in the past year had had problems with shutting her left eye. This was caused by severe retraction of the upper eyelid muscle. Despite using regular eyedrop the eye was sore and red. In addition, the vision was severely affected due to cornea changes from dry eye. 

There are several ways of correcting the retraction. In my previous blog I did an upper eyelid recession for eyelid retraction secondary to thyroid eye disease. This technique was easy to perform but the postoperative swelling takes about 10 days to 2 weeks to resolve. For a faster recovery, only the Muller's muscle that open the eye may be excised. This technique cut through less tissue so the swelling tends to resolve faster, however, the lowering effect may not be as much as the technique of upper eyelid recession.

The technique of mullerectomy for eyelid retraction.

Eyelid appearance pre and two weeks post-operative.