Upper eyelid sensibility.

For providing good pre and post surgical information to patients concerning upper eyelid blepharoplasty it is important to get a better insight in the occurrence of a disturbed sensibility after upper eyelid blepharoplasty, the kind and seriousness, and the duration and degree of recovery.

Therefore the objective of this study is to get insight of the prevalence, nature and severity of the sensory disturbances that may occur in the skin of the upper eyelid after upper eyelid blepharoplasty, as well as the duration and degree of recovery of them.

Country of recruitment: The Netherlands.

It is assumed that the sensibility of the upper eyelid skin will be more or less disturbed after upper eyelid blepharoplasty, and will improve completely or partly in a period of some weeks to months.

The study design is a prospective cohort study during six months. The sensibility of the upper eyelids will be tested four times, namely one hour before the operation, one week afterwards (after removal of the stitches), 6-8 weeks afterwards (when they came for a check up at the OPD) and six months after the upper eyelid blepharoplasty.

All blepharoplasties are performed by using the same standard surgical techniques by one of the four plastic surgeons who work in the Bergman Clinics Heerenveen. Examination of sensibility is divided into the perception of touch, temperature, pressure and pain. These modalities of sensibility are tested by the tip of a cotton ball, a Tip-Therm, a Cochet-Bonnet aesthesiometer and a neurological pin. The tests are performed at three (perceptions of touch and temperature) or six (perceptions of pressure and pain) different places of the upper eyelid skin.