Vol.98 No.5 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 98 No. 5 May 2005
Clinical Analysis of Orbital Blowout Fractures:
A Review of 29 Cases
Suetaka Nishiike, Miki Nagai, Aya Nakagawa, Masaki Konishi,
Takashi Kato, Yoshiharu Sakata and Tohru Yasukura
(Suita Municipal Hospital)
We examined 29 cases of blowout fractures (30 operations) in which repair surgery was performed at our department. There were 24 orbital floor fractures, 3 orbital medial wall fractures and 2 combined fractures of floor and medial wall. In subjective evaluation, the disturbance of eye movement was improved or cured in all cases. In subjective evaluation, the disturbance of eye movement evaluated by the Hess chart was significantly improved after the operation. The disturbance of eye movement at the first examination in the patients less than 19 years old was significantly worse than that in the patients more than 20 years old. The prognosis of eye-movement in cases of strong disturbance of eye movement at the first examination was significantly worse than in cases of weak disturbance at the first examination. The prognosis of eye-movement in cases with a linear fracture was significantly worse than in cases with a punched-out fracture. The prognosis in cases that were operated on within 9 days after injury did not differ from cases operated after 10 days. The decision to operate for blowout fractures could be made after an adequate observation period of more than 7-10 days.
Key words : blowout, Hess chart, linear, punched-out