A technique for eyelid margin repair without use of marginal sutures

Purpose: To describe and evaluate a novel technique for eyelid margin repair without the use of marginal sutures.Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients who underwent primary repair of full-thickness lid margin defects using the described technique between March 2013 and May 2019 was performed. Clinical data such as indication for repair as well as size of defect was analyzed. The primary outcome measures included presence or absence of lid notching and post-operative complications such as wound dehiscence, infection, eyelid malposition, and keratopathy. Descriptive statistics were used.Results: A total of 31 cases were identified. Five were excluded in post-operative analysis for follow-up of less than 2 weeks. The average age was 59.6 years (range 22-88) and 54.8% of patients were female. Average follow up in post-operative analysis group was 17.0 weeks (range 2 weeks to 42 months). Average defect size was 5.77 mm (range 2-12 mm). Reasons for repair were resection of eyelid lesion in 25/31 (80.6%), floppy eyelid in 4/31 (12.9%), trauma in 1/31 (3.2%), and trichiasis in 1/31 (3.2%). Post-operative eyelid notching was noted in 2/26 patients (7.7%), and there were no instances of wound dehiscence, infection, eyelid malposition, or keratopathy noted.Conclusions: Our technique for full-thickness eyelid margin repair without the use of marginal sutures successfully repairs defects up to 12 mm for various indications. We observed comparable cosmetic outcomes to previously described techniques as well as a low rate of complications using our technique.