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Cock-Eyed Optimism: Using a Foreskin to Repair Eyelids

This study documents a case of cock-eyed optimism in a German surgical team, and the presumably happy result for the patient:

Cicatricial ectropion in ichthyosis: a novel approach to treatment,” Detlef Uthoff [pictured here], M. Gorney and C. Teichmann, Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, June 1994, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 92-5. The authors, at Eye-Hospital Kiel-Bellevue, Kiel, Germany, report:

“An uncircumcised youth with total body involvement from ichthyosis developed bilateral upper and lower ectropion. The penile foreskin was the only possible suitable donor site because it seemed unaffected by the disease. A circumcision was performed and the foreskin divided into four separate full-thickness skin graft triangles to treat the four-lid ectropion. There was successful resolution of the eye symptoms and a watertight closure. To our knowledge, this is a unique case in which penile foreskin has been used to correct cicatricial ectropion.”

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