EPICANTHOPLASTY AS A KEY MANOEUVRE FOR CORRECTION OF ORIENTAL (ASIAN) EYELIDS IN COMBINATION WITH UPPER EYELID BLEPHAROPLASTY

Background. The number of patients with Asian eyelids (epicanthus) visiting aesthetic surgeons is increasing every year. According to Tyra Banks (an American supermodel and actress), a person's eyes convey their mood, emotions, state of inner harmony and soul. Patients set an aesthetic task for the surgeon, to remove the epicanthus and excess skin tissue above the upper eyelid to give the eyes a more European look, to make them look more open. Partial or incomplete removal of the epicanthus in combination with upper eyelid blepharoplasty will not achieve the desired aesthetic result. At first glance, it seeme to be a simple and technically uncomplicated operation, but at the same time it requires certain skills from the surgeon, has its own peculiarities of the postoperative course, contraindications, indications for its implementation, with frequent serious intraoperative and postoperative complications. The main task of the surgeon when performing Europeanization is the correction of the epicanthus, its removal, and medial release of the medial angle of the eye and anatomical restoration of the tissues in the place of the removed epicanthus. The combined aesthetically effective surgical method for correcting the epicanthus is upper eyelid blepharoplasty to achieve the most harmonious result of Asian eyelid Europeanization. Purpose. To analyze and evaluate the early postoperative and long-turm aesthetic results, as well as the frequency of complications in the performed epicanthoplasty in combination with upper eyelid blepharoplasty. Materials and methods. The study included 51female patients who applied to the plastic surgery clinic between 2023 and 2024. The age of the patients ranged from 24 to 29 years. All patients were of Asian origin. The patients showed aesthetic and ethnic dissatisfaction with the upper eyelids with the presence of pronounced epicanthus and the presence of excess upper eyelid skin. These complaints were the main motivating reason for performing epicanthoplasty and blepharoplasty of the upper eyelid. All patients underwent upper eyelid Europeanization, epicanthoplasty combined with upper eyelid blepharoplasty. Results. In the immediate postoperative period, complications were noted in three patients (5%) on day10. At the six-month follow-up of all patients who underwent the surgery, two patients had a slightly unsatisfactory aesthetic result. Conclusion. The cosmetic and aesthetic results of Europeanization surgery: epicanthoplasty in combination with upper eyelid blepharoplasty were analyzed. The majority of the operated patients (97%) had a positive aesthetic result after the surgery.