Upper Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty)

This is a blepharoplasty surgery video brought to you by Mr. Adrian Richards. It is an upper eyelid surgery video, meaning he will only operate on the upper eyelids. During the procedure he will remove the skin within the markings he has made, with the patient having a slightly bigger drop on the right, meaning a shade more will be removed.

The patient is awake, and has had local anaesthetic inserted. She is able to open and close her eyes throughout the video, which is beneficial so Mr. Richards can see whether he has removed enough skin to match the markings. Moving forward in the video and we are straight into the operation. The first sliver of skin has been removed, which is lifted off for the benefit of the camera.

The patient opens and closes her eyes as instructed by Mr. Richards, so he can check he is happy where the fold is. The muscle has been left alone, which is more common nowadays, because it gives a more natural fold and prevents a “hollow look” Skipping on again, Mr. Richards has inserted a running stitch through the wound and pulls it on either side to tighten it up. This is removable, so it is crucial it moves from side to side.

It is easy to make a knot if you loop back over yourself, but Mr. Richards has not done that here, and it moves nicely to the left and to the right. 7-0 stitches are used next, which are dissolvable and incredibly fine, about as fine as a human hair. These secure the incision more, and even though they are dissolvable, they can be taken out at around 7-10 days post surgery. This is preferred by our clinical nurse, Aggie, who states this on the video. The running stitch is removed after 5 days, and the dissolvable ones are left in to give the wound that bit of extra security.

We hear our patient ask if being under local anaesthetic is actually a benefit in the healing process, and it actually is. As soon as the procedure is finished she can be sat upright with a cold compress for her eyes to minimise the bruising and swelling. Aggie then discusses the postoperative care stating a lot of patients whilst applying a cold compress, alternates eyes and use the other one to sit and watch TV. The other side of the surgery is skipped and we are shown the bits of skin that have been removed. Mr. Richards then shows us the results with the patient having their eyes both open and then closed. Before the video concludes he applies some antibiotic ointment to each incision.