British Oculoplastic Surgery Society Meeting Part 1

We had a wonderful meeting of the Oculoplastics society here in London.
The first day was a course starting with upper eyelid and brow chaired by Raman Malhotra and Sabrino Shah-Desai, both oculoplastic surgeons with a lot of experience in eyelid and brow surgery. They had invited along nine invited speakers to give rapid 8 minute long talks ranging from the anatomy through to ptosis surgery by anterior or posterior approach, upper lid blepharoplasty, Asian blepharoplasty, aesthetic upper eyelid surgery and thyroid eye disease, brow lifting, the relationship between the forehead and upper lid and how to avoid complications.
The first talk was given by Mr Bijan Beiji of Norwich & East Anglia with a very precise talk on applied anatomy of the upper and the lower lid. Mr Ben Parker talked about his approach to the skin for ptosis surgery which most of us do and have learned from our training years at Moorfield’s and other eye units.
Mr Raman Malhotra replied with a short talk on posterior approach ptosis giving the advantages and the disadvantages of this approach. I used to do a lot of posterior approach ptosis, but I found that it was difficult sometimes to evert the lid afterwards and in certain patients who wore contact lenses it was not ideal for them.
Mr Rick Caesar from Cheltenham showed lovely videos of how to mark the upper eyelids for blepharoplasty surgery. I differ from him because he does not sit the patients up, but he is a very effective in marking the upper eyelid using the pinch techniques with them lying flat. Each surgeon has their preferred approach based on their experience.
We were delighted to have Professor Yoon-Duck Kim from the Republic of Korea talk about Asian blepharoplasty. She gave a beautiful talk.
Dr Raymond Douglas from Los Angeles, USA, talked about aesthetic upper eyelid surgery in patients with thyroid eye disease. The rehabilitation of patients with thyroid eye disease now involves an aesthetic aspect as well as just functional.
He was followed by Dr Timothy Martin, a plastic surgeon from San Francisco who is one of the major invited international speakers who talked about the interdependence of the forehead and the upper eyelid in rejuvenating the upper orbit. His main focus was the interrelationship between the forehead and the upper eyelid. This was followed by Mr Simon Woodruff from Cambridge who showed us how to avoid complications.
We then went on to have a session on the lower lid rejuvenation, linking the lower lids and the mid face chaired by Naresh Joshi from London and Richard Scawn from East Grinstead. Mr Simon Withey talked about the regularisation of cosmetic surgery in the UK following the Keough report and the role of The Royal College of Surgeons. This was an important lecture about certification in cosmetic surgery and training.
Mr Hugo Anderson who is the organiser of the meeting talked about the transconjunctival approach to the lower lids and Mr Naresh Joshi about the transcutaneous approach to the lower lids giving a dynamic and entertaining discussion.
Mr Ramon Medel from Barcelona took us down into the mid face with a transconjunctival approach and Mr Brian Leatherbarrow from Manchester to a transcutaneous approach to the mid face.
Lastly, Dr Timothy Martin, the key invited international speaker, talked about periorbital fat grafting; a new paradigm for rejuvenation of the eyelids. This was a most inspiring lecture about the use of micro fat/autologous fat instead of fillers for refreshing and rejuvenating the periorbita and cheeks. The afternoon session continued with trauma and more on thyroid eye disease.