Thank you for your question!
You’re asking if warm compresses after Asian eyelid surgery can dissolve sutures and even
though you didn’t submit a photo, I think that clearly you are concerned about the possibility
of undoing part of your procedure by doing warm compresses.
Well, I can certainly give you some guidance as to how to handle your post-operative care.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and fellowship trained oculofacial plastic and
reconstructive surgeon practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.
Asian eyelid surgery is an area of focus and area of expertise in my practice and I can
give you a little bit of guidance on how I instruct my patients as to how to take care
of their eyes after surgery.
So to begin with, let’s start with what are the intentions after surgery.
When we do a procedure, whether it’s a non-incisional or incisional Asian eyelid surgery, the goal
is still to bring the skin together with the muscle called levator muscle in a way that
creates a crease.
Now after surgery, regardless of any type of surgery, there is an initial 24-48 hours
where there is swelling as a response to the trauma of surgery.
And during that time, we generally recommend cold compresses.
And we recommend cold compresses like on a schedule like 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off
while awake.
Beyond that 48 hours, there is another phase where the fluid can actually be impeded by
putting cold and rather, we tell patients to first walk, talk, move, basically make
some movement.
And if they’re more sedentary then they can consider putting warm compresses.
And the goal is help the circulation along in that area to help clear up the fluid.
Now, everyone is in a hurry these days but the reality is surgical healing goes through
certain strict phases of healing, of wound healing.
And so, you can’t rush things along but you can facilitate.
So to answer the question about the sutures that are dissolvable for Asian eyelid surgery,
in my practice, when I place sutures, when it’s a non-incisional procedure, I usually
use a non-absorbable suture and if it’s an incisional procedure, I also use non-absorbable
but I end up taking those stitches in about a week.
Now, in some situations, there is some merit to using absorbable suture for anchoring of
the skin to the backbone of the eyelid or to the levator muscle.
And those sutures dissolve based on the body’s own breakdown processes that are more on the
chemical enzymatic nature.
So it’s not likely that the warm compresses would undo or facilitate that breakdown but
it might be your physician’s intention to use the warm compresses to at least accelerate
circulation of the area so that your healing can improve.
So that being said, talk to your doctor about this concern you have and understand that
it’s most likely that the procedure recommendation, warm compresses, has to do more with facilitating
of healing in terms of swelling rather than anything to do directly with the sutures.
Now again, this is in the absence of a photo and more detailed description but hopefully
the general rules of thumb and the way we practice has helped you understand what you’re
going through right now.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!