Interventions for involutional lower lid entropion.

BACKGROUND Entropion is a condition in which the eyelid margin turns in against the eyeball. The involutional or senile type of entropion is one of the most common lower lid malpositions in the elderly. The interventions described and currently used for the treatment of this condition are surgical in nature, although non-surgical temporary medical treatment for the early stages of entropion has also been reported. The relative effectiveness of these interventions has not yet been resolved. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this review is to examine the effect of interventions for involutional entropion and to assess whether any method is superior to the others. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register - CENTRAL/CCTR, which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group specialised register (Cochrane Library Issue 3, 2000), MEDLINE (1966 to October 2000), EMBASE (1980 to September 2000), the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT), oculoplastic textbooks, conference proceedings and bibliographies of relevant reports. We contacted investigators and experts in the field for details of other published and unpublished studies. SELECTION CRITERIA The criteria for including studies in this review were randomised controlled trials where one intervention for involutional lower lid entropion has been compared to another method of treatment in people older than 60 years of age with involutional lower lid entropion. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Both reviewers assessed the search results according to the criteria for including studies in the review. No studies were found that met these criteria, and therefore no data were collected and no meta-analysis was performed. MAIN RESULTS Since no studies met our selection criteria no results were produced. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS No conclusions could be reached about the effectiveness of interventions for involutional lower lid entropion, although retrospective case series studies suggest that some forms of treatment may be associated with higher recurrence rates than others. Lack of suitable data highlights the need for randomised controlled trials in the fields of entropion management.