title: [Silent sinus syndrome: a rare case of enophthalmia].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The causes of spontaneous enophthalmos, without trauma, surgical factors, or systemic illness, which can be found are rare. A particular entity called silent sinus syndrome in the Anglo-Saxon literature, which concerns the long-term effect of hypoventilation of the maxillary sinus responsible for an attraction of the sinus walls, resulting in sagging of the orbital floor, itself responsible for the enophthalmos.
  
  
  METHODS
  We report the case about a 29-year-old woman, presenting a left-side spontaneous enophthalmos, with sinus-type pains for 2 months. The clinical examination revealed a horizontal diplopia when looking leftwards. Computed tomography showed a maxillary homolateral sinusitis with characteristic attraction of the sinus walls. The draining of the sinus collection by inferior endoscopic enlargement of the maxillary ostium led to pain resolution. The enophthalmos and diplopia were stabilized.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After eradicating the orbital causes of enophthalmos, the sinus causes were sought more precisely, the pauci-symptomatic causes such as the silent sinus syndrome. The recognition of this syndrome stopped the progression of enophthalmos by making the maxillary sinus permeable again. A surgical reconstruction of the orbital floor can be proposed in order to correct the motility of the eyes and esthetic considerations.
authors.affiliation: CHU Nîmes, Hôpital G. Doumergue, 5, rue Hoche, 30029 Nîmes, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Audemard
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Galipienzo
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marck
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Girard
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romieu-Louvety
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gaches
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dupeyron
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004172:Diplopia / Q000209:etiology; D004322:Drainage; D015841:Enophthalmos / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008443:Maxillary Sinus / Q000473:pathology; D015523:Maxillary Sinusitis / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D013577:Syndrome; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
vernacular_title: Le  silent sinus syndrome : une cause rare d'énophtalmie.