BLEPHAROCHALASIS

sagging of the skin of the upper eyelid down over the eye, so that vision may be obstructed. The condition sometimes develops in elderly persons. It results from changes in the two fibrous proteins, elastin and collagen, that form the supporting framework of the skin: the quantity of elastin decreases, and the attachments between collagen fibres increase in number. Blepharochalasis is also a feature of a strange, probably inherited, disorder, Ascher's syndrome, in which the eyelid abnormality is coupled with goitre and with a swelling that makes the upper lip seem double.