To introduce and evaluate the long-term effectiveness of interrupted buried suture using non-absorbable material in involutional lower lid entropion.

A total of 105 adult involutional lower lid entropion patients (135 eyes) from January 2010 to January 2015 with or without the horizontal laxity, and without a history of previous surgical treatment were included. Exclusion criteria included patients with cicatricial entropion, epiblepharon, history of previous lower lid surgery, and follow-up period less than 3 months. The central and lateral areas below the lower lid margin and below the inferior tarsal margin were connected by non-absorbable interrupted buried suture. Results were analyzed by objective outcome using measurements from clinical photographs, subjective outcome using improvements of patients' symptom and cosmetic satisfactions.

This study included 135 eyelids. Pre-operative distraction test revealed horizontal laxity in 37 eyes (27.4%). The mean age was 79.50 years and the mean period of follow-up was 34.51 ± 3.8 months. In 133 eyelids (98.5%), post-operative lid positions have everted. Score of symptom improvements were 9.44 (0 to 10 scale). 99 patients (94.3%) were cosmetically satisfied. No surgical complications were observed. Although we had two recurred cases (1.5%), one with horizontal laxity (2.7%) and one without horizontal laxity (1.0%), reoperation was not performed due to mild subjective discomfort.

For patients with involutional entropion regardless of horizontal laxity, a simple interrupted buried suture method using non-absorbable suture material showed excellent long term results in very low recurrence rate and high cosmetic satisfaction.