81-year-old undergoes gold eyelid implant

An 81-year-old man in Navi Mumbai can now open both eyes after undergoing a gold eyelid implant surgery. The man suffered from facial palsy and was unable to close his left eyelid, causing complications. The surgery was successful, and the patient is now able to blink and sleep with his eyes closed.

Navi Mumbai

81-year-old undergoes gold eyelid implant

After unable to open his left eye lid for over a year and half, 81 year old Bhandup man can now finally open his both eyes after undergoing gold eyelid implant. This one-of-its-kind surgery was done on 81-year-old Jagannath Shetty at Fortis Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi. He was diagnosed with facial palsy, due to which he was unable to close his left eyelid. As a result, he was suffering from several complications like irritation, dryness, and watering of the eye; impacting both the quality of his sleep and life.

Shetty, who worked in an hotel earlier before retiring, had been undergoing treatment at Fortis Hiranandani Hospital Vashi for the past three months for Skull Base Osteomyelitis, an infection in which the bones gradually erode, affecting the nerves. He later developed left-side facial palsy, which left him unable to close his left eyelid, as the nerves responsible for closing the eyelid were affected. He was under the treatment of Dr Devkumar Rengaraja, Consultant-ENT, Fortis Hiranandani Hospital Vashi.

“Facial palsy is a condition that results in the inability to move the muscles on one or both sides of the face due to nerve damage. It can sometimes be an after-effect of Skull Base Osteomyelitis (a possibility in this case). While facial palsy has an incidence rate of 1 in 100,000, Skull Base Osteomyelitis is much rarer, with an incidence rate of 1 in 1,000,000,” Dr Rengaraja said.

The patient was on medication for Skull Base Osteomyelitis, which were working effectively. However, facial nerve palsy persisted, due to which he sufferred from Lagophthalmos, which is the incomplete or defective closure of the eyelids. Although there are various treatment methodologies for facial nerve rehabilitation, like facial decompression and rerouting of facial nerves, after understanding the patient history & prognosis, it was decided that a gold eyelid implant would be most effective for him, the doctor added.

. He further said, “This is a unique case as the patient was unable to close his eyelids even when sleeping. He was also earlier diagnosed with oral cancer and had undergone chemotherapy, affecting his immunity, which can be a probable cause for skull base osteomyelitis.Two nerves are responsible for helping us blink. While the third nerve - oculomotor nerve allows us to open the eyes, the seventh nerve – facial nerve helps close the eyelids. When these two nerves work correctly, people blink and can close their eyes without problem. For this patient, the seventh nerve was paralyzed, which affected the closure of the eyelids; to assist him in this task, a gold implant weighing 1.8 grams was surgically placed on his left eyelid. This implant was customized according to the patient’s requirements.”

After the surgery, under local anesthesia, the patient has recovered and is now able to blink and sleep with his eyes closed. Although he might take some time to get used to the extra weight on his eyelids, he was successfully discharged a day after surgery.

In some conditions, it is possible that the function of the seventh nerve returns after some time, and these patients can then move their eyelids without the help of the implant. If that happens, this implant can be removed from their eyelids with a small surgery, the Dr added.

Shetty’s son, a resident of Bhandup, said, “My father suffers from Hypertension. He had also been suffering from ear infections, which he was ignoring. As a result, his life was drastically impacted; he could not watch TV or read books, which he was really fond of, especially after retirement. Due to his condition, he was unable even to walk right; he couldn’t maintain balance due to poor eyesight. Since the surgery, we have seen consistent improvement, and my father is happy that he is able to watch TV and read the newspaper every day.”