Surgical Correction of Prolapse of Nictitating Membrane Gland Using a Variant of the Pocket Technique: A Retrospective Study on 101 Dogs and 126 Eyes

ABSTRACT

Objective
To retrospectively investigate the outcome of a modified Morgan pocket technique that included temporary ventral scleral gland fixation to treat prolapse of the nictitans gland.


Animal Studied
The files of 101 client‐owned dogs (126 eyes) between 2015 and 2024 were retrospectively analyzed.


Results
All the surgeries were completed in under 10 min. Follow‐up was between 180 to 3285 days (mean 1190 days) in 119/126 (94%) eyes and three years in 81/126 (64.3%) eyes. The technique achieved successful surgical repositioning in 125/126 (99.2%) eyes after one surgery, with only one eye (1/126 (0.8%)) having a recurring prolapse that was successfully managed by repeating the technique. Seven other immediate postoperative complications (7/126, 5.6% of the eyes) were recorded, including lacrimal cysts in 5/126 (4%) eyes and corneal ulceration in 2/126 (1.6%) eyes. All cysts were treated with local drainage, two under general anesthesia and three under sedation and topical anesthesia. Additional complications occurred in 14/101 (13.9%) of the animals, including keratoconjunctivitis sicca and ulcerative keratoconjunctivitis of different degrees of severity. Given the long follow‐up and low number of cases affected, it was not known if these problems might have been associated with some aspects of the surgical treatment.


Conclusions
The technique described included a temporary fixation of the gland before closure of the pocket with successful long‐term repositioning of the gland in 99.2% of eyes after the first attempt. Cysts and recurrence were infrequent complications. Further studies could investigate if the technique might be adapted to minimize complications.