Safety and Efficacy of Resident-Performed Functional Upper Eyelid Blepharoplasty

To determine the safety and efficacy of resident-performed functional upper eyelid blepharoplasty.

The authors retrospectively looked at functional upper eyelid blepharoplasty surgery performed on 836 eyes of 448 patients under the supervision of one oculoplastic surgery attending at the University of California Davis Eye Center from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2017. The primary surgeon was a resident on 427 eyes and was an attending on 409 eyes. Patients (73.5%) were female, and the mean age was 66.0 ± 10.0. All patients had at least 2 postoperative visits, and eyes that underwent other concurrent upper eyelid or brow procedures were excluded. The authors looked at major and minor complications, percentage of initially dissatisfied patients, and percentage of cases that required a revision procedure within 6 months. Chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis.

There were no major complications in either group. There was no difference in the rate of minor complications (10.8% vs. 7.6%, p = 0.11), percentage of patients who were initially dissatisfied with the procedure (3.5% vs. 2.0%, p = 0.17), or percentage of patients requiring a revision procedure (5.2% vs. 3.2%, p = 0.15). The most common minor complications were inclusion cysts (45, 5.4%), wound dehiscence (9, 1.1%), and hypertrophic scars (9, 1.1%), and the most common revision procedures were removal of inclusion cyst(s) (17, 2.0%) and suturing or placement of topical skin adhesive for wound dehiscence (9, 1.1%).

Ophthalmology residents can perform functional upper eyelid blepharoplasty safely and effectively under the supervision of an attending physician.Resident-performed functional upper eyelid blepharoplasty under the direct supervision of an attending is a safe and effective procedure with similar complication rate, number of revision procedures, and patient satisfaction to attending-performed functional upper eyelid blepharoplasty.