EYE PHYSICIANS | BURLINGTON COUNTY

What is Ptosis?

Ptosis (TOE-sis) is a drooping of the upper eyelid. It can block normal vision. Ptosis can affect one or both eyelids. It may be present at birth (congenital) or occur later in life.

What You Need To Do:

Surgery can treat ptosis by tightening the levator, or eyelid-lifting muscle. In severe ptosis, when the levator muscle is extremely weak, the lid can be attached to or suspended from under the eyebrow so that the forehead muscles can do the lifting.

Immediately after surgery, it may be difficult to completely close the eye, but this is only temporary. Lubricant eyedrops and ointment are helpful during this period.

Although surgery usually improves the height of the lid, both eyelids may still not appear perfectly symmetrical. In some cases, more than one operation may be required. In rare cases, full eyelid movement does not return.

The most common treatment is surgery. Sometimes a small tuck in the lifting muscle and eyelid can raise the lid sufficiently. More severe ptosis requires reattachment and strengthening of the levator muscle.

Why It’s Important:

The most common cause of ptosis in adults is the separation or stretching of the levator muscle tendon from the eyelid. This process may occur as a result of aging, after cataract surgery or other eye surgery, or as a result of an injury.

Adult ptosis may also occur as a complication of other diseases involving the levator muscle or its nerve supply, such as neurological and muscular diseases and, in rare cases, tumors of the eye socket.

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