Purpose: To describe a minimally invasive, sutureless, small incision surgical technique for the treatment of subconjunctival orbital fat prolapse (SOFP) performed using local anesthesia in an office setting.
Methods: Retrospective study of the surgical outcome of 45 patients with either bilateral or unilateral SOFP treated by a single surgeon (R.S.) between July 2010 and February 2015.
Results: Forty-five patients (39 male, 6 female) had a mean age of 67 years. Fat prolapse was bilateral in 23 patients (51%). A total of 68 eyes were operated on. All surgeries were without any intra- or postoperative complications such as infection, dry-eye symptoms, ocular motility impairment, or recurrence with a mean follow up of 37 months. All patients had a favorable postoperative cosmetic improvement.
Conclusions: The authors propose an office-based, cost-effective, minimally invasive, sutureless technique for treating SOFP with local anesthesia in a safe and effective manner. The lack of complications or recurrence with an adequate follow-up period following this technique is encouraging. Surgeons should consider this technique in the surgical correction of SOFP.