Undoing Burial Method Eyelid Surgery: Swelling After Suture Removal

Undoing Burial Method Eyelid Surgery: Swelling After Suture Removal

I will be posting about these two topics today.

Specifically, I will discuss the extent of swelling after undoing a burial method double eyelid surgery.

During a recent consultation, a patient asked how much swelling to expect after removing the burial method sutures.

In practice, we do not typically take photos or keep detailed records of swelling specifically after suture removal, but with the patient’s consent for photo and video recording, I am creating this post.

As mentioned in previous posts, there is often a misunderstanding that undoing burial method (natural adhesion) surgery causes significant swelling. However, because we do not disrupt the surrounding tissue and focus solely on locating and removing the sutures precisely, there is very little swelling.

Please note that this applies to the single-knot method. If a different technique was used, the sutures might not be removed directly; instead, the double eyelid can be undone by creating multiple small punctures.

In the photo above, you can observe the adhesion band formed over the black suture.

This is the appearance immediately after the suture was cleanly extracted. As you can see, there is almost no bruising.

This shows the area after a single stitch was applied following the suture removal.

Most patients who seek to remove burial method sutures originally had natural double eyelids but underwent the procedure because their lines appeared faint and they wanted a more defined look.

However, surgery often fails to produce the exact look the patient desires. In many cases, it results in a ‘sausage eye’ appearance or multiple overlapping folds. Often, an incisional method would have been a better choice.

I will show you the swelling through a video. Since this patient originally had double eyelids, you can see that the unnaturally deep look has disappeared.