Abstract Listings 2026

Purpose

To describe the off-label use of the silicone scleral buckling band — a flat, broad, biocompatible element with decades of intraocular safety — as a versatile tool in oculoplastic reconstruction, in patients for whom conventional autologous or alloplastic options were unavailable, unsuitable, exhausted, or had previously failed.

Methods

Retrospective single-surgeon series of eight patients in whom a silicone encircling band was repurposed as a cerclage, sling, ligament substitute, lid-margin bridge, or muscle-wrap element. Band dimensions were selected intraoperatively. Patients were followed clinically and photographically. Informed consent for off-label use was obtained.

Results

Indications spanned paralytic ectropion and brow ptosis salvage after prior implant failure, frontalis suspension combined with volume restoration, mid-face reinforcement in long-standing facial palsy, lateral canthal ligament substitution, full-thickness lid-margin reconstruction, and tarsal contour repair. All implantations were uneventful and functional/aesthetic improvement was achieved in every case. No extrusion, infection, migration, palpability or removal occurred.

Conclusion

The flat, low-modulus profile distributes load broadly, resisting the cheese-wiring of rods and sutures, and the material is widely available, inexpensive and well characterised. This is a feasibility report, not a comparative study: a familiar implant from another field may be useful in oculoplastic surgery when standard solutions fall short.

Additional Authors

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