Indications. In cases of trichiasis where a few eyelashes turn in on the conjunctiva or cornea they may be removed by this method.
Operation. A platinum electrolysis needle (negative pole) is passed alongside each lash into the follicle, and a constant current of about 5 milliampères allowed to pass for a half to one minute. There is usually some bubbling seen around the hair, which will fall out when touched if the operation has been properly performed. It is a comparatively painless operation and free from scarring if the hair follicle be not penetrated by the needle. This is best ensured by using a rather blunt point and not turning on the current until the needle is in position.
SKIN AND MUSCLE OPERATION
Indications. This operation is especially suitable for the senile or spastic forms of entropion of the lower lid, not infrequently seen after much bandaging in old people, which has failed to yield to treatment by pulling the lid outwards with strapping.
Instruments. Straight scissors, fixation and entropion forceps.
Fig. 144. Treacher Collins’s Entropion Forceps.
Operation. Adrenalin and cocaine solution is injected beneath the skin of the lower lid. A horizontal strip of skin as near the lid margin as possible is seized with the entropion forceps (Fig. 144) and removed by one snip of the scissors. The underlying orbicularis muscle is then removed over the same area and the wound closed with sutures. If a more pronounced result is required, a vertical piece of skin is removed at the outer end of the previous wound and allowed to granulate.