This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Alternative to chalazion clamps helps surgeons avoid marginal artery damage
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
CHICAGO -- A new clamp may help surgeons avoid injury to the marginal artery during the Cutler-Beard procedure, said Allen M. Putterman, MD.
The Cutler-Beard procedure allows surgeons to effectively reconstruct large upper eyelid defects that have resulted from eyelid tumor removal or traumatic and congenital colobomas, he added.
Dr. Putterman enrolled 25 patients undergoing the Cutler-Beard procedure in a study to analyze the Cutler-Beard transmarginal rotation entropion clamp (Karl Ilg. & Co.). Dr. Putterman wrote that the clamp helps avoid the problems of a commonly used chalazion clamp because it allows an orbicularis muscle incision to be combined with a conjunctival tarsal incision, without necessitating clamp removal.
Because the clamp blades have multiple teeth to stabilize the eyelid and avoid slippage of the clamp, Dr. Putterman wrote in the April issue of Ophthalmology, the clamp helps avoid injury to the marginal artery.
“The main concern in the Cutler-Beard procedure is injury to the flap of the lower eyelid margin bridge,” he wrote. Preserving the marginal artery of the lower eyelid will “avoid necrosis of the lower eyelid margin resulting from loss of vascularization.” The chalazion clamp typically used in this type of procedure may mean surgeons are not creating an incision precisely 4 mm beneath the eyelid margin, he added.
Dr. Putterman does not have a financial interest in the Cutler-Beard clamp, according to the article.