Haiz Operation

HAIZ OPERATION (Haitz), an improved operation of May, proposed for correcting complete adhesions between the lower eyelid and the eyeball. With a knife or scissors, the adhesions connecting the eyelid to the eyeball are dissected. Cicatricial adhesions are separated as deeply as possible behind the septum orbitale and extended to the bone itself. After separation of the adhesions, while an assistant retracts the upper eyelid with a lifter and the eyeball upward with forceps, a free skin graft, taken according to Wolf-Krause, is transferred to the wound surface. The upper edge of this graft is placed at the limbus; the graft is carefully fitted to the eyeball. Then, with the aid of a special celluloid prosthesis and a spatula, the skin graft is depressed into the depth of the wound to the bone so as to form a fornix. The skin graft thus laid is fixed with three double sutures, passing the needles through the corresponding holes in the prosthesis. The ligatures are brought out to the outer surface of the lower eyelid and here, 3-4 mm below the ciliary edge of the eyelids, are tied on cotton rolls. The skin flap is also sutured to the conjunctiva of the limbus. A dressing is applied to both eyes; after a week, both the prosthesis and the sutures are removed. In many cases, this method gives good results.