Does putting warm compresses on eyelids after Asian eyelid surgery mess up the inner dissolvable stitches and crease line?

Thank you for your question. I understand you’d like to know if warm compresses can dissolve sutures after Asian eyelid surgery.A bit about myself — I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years. Asian eyelid surgery is an area of focus and expertise in my practice, so I can certainly help you with your concern.When we perform Asian eyelid surgery — regardless of whether it is incisional or non-incisional — the main goal is to connect the skin to the levator muscle in a way that creates a crease. After surgery, there is an initial 24-48 hours of swelling, which is a typical response to the trauma of surgery, which is the same for any other type of surgery. During this time, we recommend cold compresses on a certain schedule, such as 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off while awake. Beyond the 48 hours, there is another phase where the fluid can actually be impeded by putting cold compresses, so we usually advise our patients to walk, talk, and just move around. If they’re more sedentary, then they can opt to use warm compresses on those areas, for the purpose of promoting circulation and clearing up any fluid. Keep in mind that surgical healing goes through certain strict phases of wound healing, so you can’t rush things, but you can certainly facilitate them.With regard to sutures — in my practice, I usually use non-absorbable sutures when doing a non-incisional procedure. For incisional procedures, I also use non-absorbable sutures, but I take them out in about a week. There are situations where it is beneficial to use absorbable sutures, and usually those sutures dissolve based on the body’s own natural breakdown processes that are more on the chemical enzymatic nature, so I don’t think the warm compresses could cause such a breakdown.I recommend that you meet with your doctor and discuss your concerns with them, and try to gain an understanding from your doctor’s perspective as to why warm compresses have been recommended to you. In my own opinion, and I say this in the absence of any photos of your case, I think it has more to do with the facilitation of healing and circulation in terms of swelling, rather than anything to do directly with the sutures.I hope that was helpful and I wish you the best of luck!

Jolie77, in general, I have patients use cool compresses for 3-4 days following surgery.  This is to control swelling and slow bleeding.  By day 5, I have patients change to warm compress to help resolve bruising.  Most bruising resolves by the second week.  Cheers

Hello jolie77,I do not believe warm compresses dissolved your sutures or caused any permanent damage.  However, I instruct all my Asian blepharoplasty patients to use cold compression rather than warm compression after surgery to help decrease the swelling. I think it is much more effective at getting the swelling down than warm compression.  Best wishes.