Clinical specialities
Lower lid malposition
Your first appointment
With lower lid malposition of the eyelid, there are basically two main conditions to think about – the first is called ectropion and the other is called entropion. These are conditions that mainly affect the lower lid and the symptoms are often similar between the two.
Often the patient will notice a change in the appearance of the eye; the patient may notice that the eyelid looks to be in the wrong position – either the eyelid is hanging out away from the eyeball (ectropion) or it has rotated and rolled inwards with the eyelashes coming into contact with the eyeball (entropion), which can be painful.
Apart from how it looks the patient may experience a number of symptoms such as soreness, watering, inflammation, a sensation of something being in the eye and sometimes blurring of the vision.
In the first instance, the patient will come in to see us at Circle Health, and we will have a look under the microscope and work out what is going on with the eyelid. Nearly always, it will be a case of treating the condition with surgery.
Surgery will nearly always be done as a day case procedure at Circle Health and usually with a local anaesthetic. It will involve repositioning the eyelid with some tightening up, to get it into the right position. Like for upper lid malposition, the patient tends to go home with the eye covered with an eye patch and they will be given some drops and ointment to use afterwards.
While the patient is having the surgery, they may have their eyes open or shut. Patients won’t see very much while it’s happening, usually just shadows and movement and most people tolerate it with no trouble.
After the treatment, the patient may have some mild bruising, swelling and discomfort.
Everything should settle down within a couple of weeks for the patient and they will use the drops and ointment for around 10 days. We will follow them up here at Circle Health a week or two later.