Epicanthoplasty: Social and Historic Perspectives.

The epicanthus is a fold of skin covering the inner corner of the eye, blending into the nasal skin. It is a cosmetic feature of many populations of the world. The surgical alteration of this structure was first developed for the epicanthus found in such congenital genetic conditions as Down syndrome in the West. In the last century and a half, in what may be a reaction to the Western portrayal of skin overlaying the eye and of Shakespeare's descriptions of characters with epicanthic folds, surgical techniques have arisen for pure cosmetic intent to alter the Asian eyelid. These procedures have almost wholly become undertaken by patients and surgeons of East-Asian descent. Since 1989, the epicanthus surgery literature has been predominantly penned by authors of East Asian descent.