PURPOSE

To evaluate the role of tarsorrhaphy and its effectiveness in the treatment of patients with thyroid eye disease (TED).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study identified the patients who required tarsorrhaphy for corneal lesions associated with TED among the total number of 457 patients who underwent tarsorrhaphy at the Research Institute of Eye Diseases over the past 20 years.

RESULTS

Overall, 477 tarsorrhaphy surgeries (457 patients) were performed, including temporary and permanent, partial and complete. The corneal involvement in TED was the indication for tarsorrhaphy in 81 patients (101 tarsorrhaphies). TED patients were divided depending on the date of operation, and it was found that 61 tarsorrhaphies were performed in the period from 2000 to 2009, and 40 similar interventions were performed in the period from 2010 to 2019.

CONCLUSION

The reduction in the number of tarsorrhaphy surgeries in patients with TED in the last decade due to improvement of techniques for bony decompression of the orbit and increase in the number of these operations allowed significant reduction of the degree of proptosis and, as a consequence, the exposure surface area of the eye. However, despite all the successes achieved in orbital surgery, tarsorrhaphy still remains an affordable technique that can always be used in case of corneal lesions in thyroid eye disease.