To study the changes in vision and astigmatism in epiblepharon patients undergoing simultaneous surgery for both upper and lower eyelid epiblepharon.

The study subjects consisted of 40 eyes of 20 patients who underwent surgery for both upper and lower eyelid epiblepharon from March 2007 to December 2008. The patients were divided into groups depending on the degree of corneal erosion. Uncorrected and best corrected vision, refractive error and the degree of corneal erosion were measured before and three months after the surgery.

The mean patient age was 7.40 years, and all but three patients showed postoperative grade 0 corneal erosion. Mean uncorrected logMAR visual acuity was 0.44 preoperatively and 0.25 three months after the operation. The mean best corrected logMAR visual acuity was 0.13 preoperatively and 0.04 three months after the operation ( p = 0.02, 0.01). Mean astigmatism showed a significant decrease from 1.46 preoperatively to 1.19 three months after surgery ( p = 0.03).

After simultaneous surgery for upper and lower eyelid epiblepharon in children, uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity and corneal erosion were all improved. The astigmatism was largely with-the-rule, both before and after surgery.