Now you can have droopy eyelid correction without missing more than 5 days off work

Now you can have droopy eyelid correction without missing more than 5 days off work

Did you realise that we can do droopy eyelid correction as an outpatient or a day case with you wide-awake, but your eyelids numbed with a local anaesthetic? You probably did not. Here at Clinica London, I do droopy eyelid surgery on a daily basis in our small operating theatre. We do the surgery under a combination of local anaesthetic eye drops and local anaesthetic infiltration. A small amount of local anaesthetic is put just underneath the skin of the upper eyelids after the skin has been prepped, cleaned and marked for the skin crease. 

I can then remove skin, and any necessary soft tissue appropriate to your upper eyelids and I can lift the upper eyelids in a ptosis correction if they require that. I use a fibrin adhesive, which is a type of glue as well as small sutures, so the recovery time is very much reduced.I do find that younger people do exceedingly well with droopy eyelid correction with blepharoplasty and ptosis surgery. They do not bruise very much, and they certainly can be only five days off work. As you get a bit older there can be a bit more bruising, and you may still want to wear some dark glasses around about a week to 10 days, but in general, it is the type of surgery that you own you require to take about five days off work.

During the first one to two weeks, there will be a little bit of bruising and swelling after droopy eyelid correction. There is always a small risk of infection while the stitches are in and the wound is not fully sealed. We remove the stitches in one week or thereabouts (6-8 days), and we advise you not to swim in the first two weeks. We also advise you to wear protective glasses, whether they be sunglasses or ordinary. This is just to stop dust and things blowing in. Of course, if you touch your eyelids, you have to have clean hands as you want to avoid any possibility of a little wound infection from inadvertent touching. In another blog post, I have discussed the potential risks for vision with any procedure around the eyes, and this is minimal, albeit it has been recorded in the world literature.

In the ordinary course of events, the patient having droopy eyelid surgery only needs to miss five days off work, and they should be back again with minimal evidence of the eyelid surgery a week later. We remove the sutures and clean the wounds at day 6 to 7. Most bruises are gone between 5 and 10 days and when they are light you can hide them with concealer. 

In summary, you can have droopy eyelid correction without missing more than five days off work because it is done meticulously under local anaesthetic in relaxing and calm surroundings. Also, we use a fibrin adhesive to help promote the fibrin cascade, which is the clotting mechanism and encourage quiet healing.