A SIMPLE MODIFICATION OF OPERATIONS FOR ENTROPION OF THE EYELIDS

Working in a country where trachoma is responsible for about one half of all the ophthalmic cases and where, therefore, operative procedures to correct entropion and trichiasis make up 30 to 40 per cent of all the operations, one tries to find simpler methods to substitute for the complicated and time-consuming plastic procedures, such as the Hotz and Snellen operations. The method described makes use of the principle of the Hotz operation, i. e., to fix the margin of the lid to the upper border of the tarsus by sutures. This, however, is done without cutting the skin, but only by passing three or four double-armed sutures from the conjunctival side through the upper border of the tarsus, then along the anterior surface of the tarsus downward and finally emerging through the skin 1 to 2 mm. above the row of eyelashes. The other end of the silk suture is