Surgical reconstruction in cryptophthalmos.

Cryptophthalmos is the congenital absence of the eyelid with skin passing continuously from the forehead onto the cheek over a malformed eye. The deformity can be classified into three types: complete, incomplete and abortive. We present the cases of two siblings, each with incomplete cryptophthalmos involving one eye. We report a three-stage reconstructive procedure in which a conchal cartilage 'sandwich' graft was first placed between the skin flap and the globe, mucous membrane subsequently grafted onto the inner surface of the cartilage graft, and lid level adjusted as the third stage.