| Abstract: | The authors performed an anatomical and histological study on eight eyelids to define the lower insertions of the levator muscle. Twenty-nine cases of senile ptosis are presented in which levator aponeurosis surgery was successful. All patients were operated under local anesthesia. The authors used an aponeurotic repair when an aponeurosis dehiscence was identified during surgery (12 cases). The preoperative clinical appearance of all of these patients was typical and suggested the presence of a defect in the aponeurosis. In the 17 other cases the authors used aponeurosis tucking. This technique is easy and rapid and can be performed on very old patients. Histological anomalies of the aponeurosis were found out from biopsies. There is an anatomical analogy between the upper and the lower lid, and equally between senile ptosis and senile entropion, characterized by laxity or disinsertion of the lower lid retractor. One patient with a disinsertion of the aponeurosis and of the lower lid retractor is presented. |
