Use of a chronic soft tissue expansion device to facilitate blepharoplasty in a horse with lower-lid cicatricial ectropion with a 14-year follow-up.

A 3-year-old Thoroughbred filly presented to a referral equine hospital for surgical correction of a severe cicatricial lateral lower eyelid ectropion OD, with secondary exposure keratitis. The severity of the ectropion deemed that conventional ectropion repairs would be unsuccessful. Therefore, a soft tissue expansion device was used to create sufficient local tissue for a rotational graft with tension-relieving horizontal incisions to be performed to facilitate closure and acceptable eyelid apposition. The keratitis had resolved by two months postoperatively. There were no long-term complications and only mild recurrence of the keratitis observed 14-years postoperatively.