title: Repair of medial orbital wall fracture: transcaruncular approach.
abstract: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the safety and the use of the transcaruncular approach as a surgical technique for managing a medial wall fracture. This approach was used in 40 patients with a isolated medial or a combined medial and inferior orbital wall fracture between September 1998 and September 2002. A computed tomographic scan was taken before and after surgery. The ocular motility and enophthalmos were checked before and after surgery. The transcaruncular approach provided the appropriate surgical exposure in all cases. Patients were followed up for a mean of 9.4 months (range, 524 months) after repairing the orbital wall fracture. Hertel exophthalmometry showed that among the 40 patients; 24 patients showed no enophthalmos. The enophthalmos ranged from 0.51 mm in 14 patients and 1.5 mm enphthalmos was noted in 2 patients. A clinically significant enophthalmos =2 mm was not found postoperatively. Preoperatively, 12 patients (30%) had a diplopia in the primary position of the gaze and 26 patients (65%) had a diplopia within 30 degrees of the gaze. Postoperatively, all patients had an orthotropia in the primary position but 4 patients (10%) had a residual diplopia either on the lateral gaze (2 patients) or the upgaze (2 patients). There were 2 cases of an implant misplacement. The transcaruncular approach provides a safe, rapid, and cosmetically pleasing surgical approach for managing a isolated medial wall fracture. When combined with the inferior transconjunctival approach, a combined medial and inferior orbital wall fracture can be successfully repaired.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Konyang University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Helen Lew
authors.forename: So-Hyang
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Koung
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kook
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Juan
authors.forename: Sang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019299:Decompression, Surgical / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D009917:Orbital Fractures / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome