Health-Related Quality-of-Life Outcomes for Upper Blepharoplasty and Blepharoptosis Surgery: A Report by the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Abstract

Purpose: To review the literature and identify the health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) outcomes that used a validated instrument in the assessment of upper blepharoplasty, blepharoptosis surgery, or combination surgery.

Methods: A literature search was last conducted in the PubMed database in January 2025 to identify all studies in the English language investigating HRQL outcomes that used a validated instrument in the assessment of upper blepharoplasty, blepharoptosis surgery, or combination surgery. The literature search yielded 773 citations, and 20 studies met the inclusion criteria. All studies included a validated instrument to assess HRQL. A panel methodologist then assigned a level of evidence rating for each study that met the inclusion criteria.

Results: Three studies were rated level I, 8 studies were rated level II, and 9 studies were rated level III. The surgeries performed in the studies included upper blepharoplasty, blepharoptosis correction, or both. Some studies also included the addition of brow ptosis repair. Seven studies focused on the effect of the upper eyelid interventions on dry eye symptoms, 5 of which observed no subjective worsening and 1 of which demonstrated symptoms that were transient. The remaining studies focused on aspects of visual function, patient satisfaction, self-consciousness of appearance, benefit in daily life, ocular symptoms, headache symptoms, or a combination thereof and found a benefit of surgery in these various domains. Three studies that examined the long-term HRQL benefit of blepharoptosis correction noted continued improvement at mean follow-up intervals ranging from 1.5 years to 3.6 years after surgery.

Conclusions: Most HRQL studies examining the effects of upper blepharoplasty, blepharoptosis correction, or both on dry eye symptoms found no significant worsening of subjective metrics. Other studies demonstrated that surgery could provide improved HRQL outcomes that persist for several years.

Financial disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.