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Updated: May 4, 2026
Surgical Correction for Pediatric Epiblepharon and Trichiasis
Published on: July 8, 2025
Ten years' experience with unilateral conjunctival mullerectomy in the Asian eyelid
Sun Young Jang1, Susie Chin, Jae Woo Jang
1Bucheon and Seoul, Republic of Korea From the Departments of Ophthalmology and Pathology, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine; and the Department of Ophthalmology, Kim's Eye Hospital, Myung-Gok Eye Research Institute, Konyang University College of Medicine.
Background:
The purpose of this study was to report 10 years of experience with unilateral conjunctival mullerectomy in the Asian eyelid.
Methods:
Medical records of patients with unilateral ptosis who underwent conjunctival mullerectomy performed by a single surgeon from January of 2001 to December of 2011 were reviewed. The following factors were investigated: preoperative marginal reflex distance-1 of the ptotic and contralateral normal eyelids, levator function, and preoperative marginal reflex distance-1 after instillation of 2.5% phenylephrine of the ptotic eye. Main outcome measures were the surgical success rate of conjunctival mullerectomy, comparison of preoperative factors according to surgical results, and the results of univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses to identify the factors associated with undercorrection of conjunctival mullerectomy.
Results:
Of a total of 64 eyes (64 patients), 53 eyes (82.8 percent) showed surgical success, two eyes (3.1 percent) showed overcorrection, and nine eyes (14.1 percent) showed undercorrection. The mean preoperative marginal reflex distance-1 difference between both eyes was 2.20 mm in the undercorrection group and 1.40 mm in the surgical success group (p = 0.001). The percentage of patients in whom the phenylephrine test did not raise the lid up to the height of the nonptotic eyelid was 88.9 percent (eight of nine eyes) in the undercorrection group, and 28.3 percent (15 of 53 eyes) and 0 percent (zero of two eyes) in the surgical success and overcorrection groups, respectively (p = 0.001). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that patients in whom the phenylephrine test did not raise the lid up to the height of the nonptotic eyelid were associated with an increased risk of undercorrection after conjunctival mullerectomy (OR, 10.740; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.098 to 15.431; p = 0.041). We observed 0.18 ± 0.08-mm lid elevation per 1 mm of conjunctival mullerectomy.
Conclusions:
Conjunctival mullerectomy can be successfully performed to correct unilateral ptosis in the Asian eyelid in 82.8 percent of patients. Patients with greater degrees of preoperative ptosis and those in whom the phenylephrine test did not raise the lid up to the height of the nonptotic eyelid have a higher possibility of undercorrection.
Clinical Question/Level Of Evidence:
Therapeutic, IV.
