Procianoy F, Mendonça TB, Bins CA, Lang MP. Characterization of Normal Mediolateral Angular Direction of Lower Eyelid Eyelashes in Different Age Groups. Ophthalmic Plast Reconstr Surg. 2015;31(4):332-333. doi:10.1097/IOP.0000000000000473
My motivation for this study was the interesting CLETT publication (Mills DM, Meyer DR. Central lower eyelid thinning with trichiasis: characterization and management of a unique subset of entropion in elderly patients. Ophthalmic Plast Reconstr Surg. 2009;25(6):445-449), that describes and explains the common finding of central trichiasis. One of the described findings in CLETT syndrome was “medialization of the lateral eyelashes”. At that time, I had never read about and couldn’t find any literature on normal mediolateral eyelash position or its changes. We compared the angular mediolateral angular eyelash direction in 3 lower eyelid portions (medial, central and temporal) of 3 age groups, and verified that lashes in the lateral portion of lower eyelid tend to maintain the same angular position throughout life, while on the central and medial portions it tends to approach a 90° angle from a medial original direction with age. I believe that this modification throughout life may be related to involutional horizontal eyelid laxity.
Dr. Fernando Procianoy
CRM-RS 26375
