Book 7
7
But in the course of the above treatment it sometimes happens that when too much skin has been excised, the eyeball is not covered; and occasionally this also occurs from some other cause: the Greeks call the condition lagophthalmus. If too much of the eyelid is lost, no treatment can restore it; if a small loss it may be remedied. Just below the eyebrow the skin is to be incised in the figure of a crescent with the horns pointing downwards. The incision should reach as far as the cartilage without injuring it; for should the cartilage be cut into, the eyelid will droop, and cannot afterwards be raised. Therefore if the skin is merely drawn apart, it follows that the bottom of the eyelid droops slightly because of the gap made by the cut above; into this gap lint is to be inserted, both to prevent the separated edges from reuniting, and to help the growth of the flesh between, so that the eyeball comes to be properly covered when the gap has filled up.
