New hope for patients of jaw winking syndrome

Ophthalmologist of a city hospital, using advanced surgical procedure, gave new hope to a young lady suffering from ‘ Marcus Gunn Jaw Winking Syndrome’, a one of the rarest eye deformity.

‘ Marcus Gunn Jaw Winking’ syndrome is a rare form of congenital ptosis or droopy eyelid, where the eyelid moves up and down with the movement of the jaw, while speaking or while chewing.

This occurs as a result of abnormal connections between the nerves that control the muscles that help in chewing and the muscle that lifts the upper eyelid. This causes the “jaw wink”.

According to doctors, born with an eye deformity Reeta ( name changed) suffered a lot during her childhood and now in her mid- 20s. She, like her peers, wanted to have a career, marriage and children.

Explaining the criticality of the case, senior consultant, ophthalmology, Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital, Dr. Vidya Nair Chaudhry said, “Reeta was born with the rare eye disorder where her eye lid moves up and down with the movement of the jaw, while speaking or while chewing. When she was examined, we found that the lid droop was actually very minimal, but the eyelid movement with jaw movement was very marked, one of the most severe jaw winking that I had ever seen.”

Talking about surgical procedure, Dr Vidya said, “In a case of simple ptosis, the treatment is a surgical tightening of the weak LPS muscle.