Perceived change in age after functional upper blepharoplasty

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To evaluate the perceived age of patients before and after functional upper blepharoplasty.

Methods

Retrospective chart review of patients who underwent upper blepharoplasty by a single surgeon at an academic center. The inclusion criterion was having external photographs before and after blepharoplasty. Exclusion criteria included any other concurrent eyelid or facial surgery. Primary endpoint: perceived change in age after surgery as judged by the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) surgeons.

Results

Sixty-seven patients (14 men, 53 women) were included. Mean pre-operative age was 66.9 years (range 37.8–89.4) and mean post-operative age was 67.4 years (range 38.6–89). The mean perceived age pre-operatively was 68.9 years, and the mean perceived age post-operatively was 67.1 years, a change of 1.8 years (p = 0.0001 by two-tailed paired T-test). Inter-rater reliability of the observers was measured by intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.77 for pre-operative and 0.75 for post-operative photos. The decreased perceived age was 1.9 years for women, 1.4 years for men, 0.3 years for Asians, 1.2 years for Hispanics, and 2.1 years for whites.

Discussion

Functional upper blepharoplasty by an experienced ASOPRS surgeon was shown to reduce the perceived age of a patient by an average of 1.8 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Blepharoplasty
• eyelid surgery
• facial aging
• aging
• cosmetic surgery

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Proprietary interest statement

SKF: advisory/consultant for Sling, Horizon, Viridian, Poriferous, Medtronic, WL Gore.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.