Double eyelid surgery --feels like stitch is still present. Are stitches used internally, and do they remain indefinitely?

In double eyelid surgery, internal stitches are placed to create the crease. These stitches area permanent. Usually they are very fine but occasionally you can palate them through the skin.

Dear Eyelid123,

Following upper eyelid surgery,
different operative blepharoplasty physicians suture in different ways. Some physicians use a dissolving suture and
others use a nylon-type sutures. Nylon
sutures do need to be removed; however, it is not uncommon for small amounts of
the nylon suture not to be visible through the crusting in the early phase and
this can get trapped under the skin. As
you feel a sharp, stabbing-type sensation, it is quite possible there could be
a residual nylon suture. The absorbable sutures generally at eight weeks do not
give that sharp feeling and a thickening can be from scar tissue, although
sharp pain is uncommon.

In order to be certain, the best
advice at this early phase is to seek the expertise of your operative physician
to ensure there has been no suture material left behind. Occasionally under local anaesthesia, it is necessary
to make a small incisional defect in the area of the sharp pain to dig out
residual nylon sutures that will not go away.

I hope this information has been of
some assistance and best of luck.

Sincerely,

R. Stephen Mulholland, MD

Certified Plastic Surgeon

Yorkville, Toronto