Early versus late repair of orbital blowout fractures.
To compare early and late surgical repair of orbital blowout floor fractures.



A retrospective, comparative interventional case series reviewed medical records of 50 consecutive patients who underwent unilateral orbital floor fracture repair in a 4-year period. Comparative analysis was performed between patients operated on within 2 weeks of injury and those operated on at a later stage.



Assault, motor vehicle accidents, and sports injuries were the most common causes of injury. Surgery was performed due to inferior rectus muscle entrapment and limitations in up gaze in 20 (40%) patients or to prevent enophthalmos in cases with significant bony orbital expansion in 30 (60%) patients. After surgery, enophthalmos improved an average of 0.8 mm. Limitation in ocular motility improved after surgery but was statistically significant only in up gaze. Patients who underwent early repair (within 2 weeks) achieved less improvement in enophthalmos versus patients who underwent late repair (delta enophthalmos of 0.2 +/- 1.1 vs 1.3 +/- 1.9 mm, respectively; P = .02).



In these patients, postoperative vertical ductions and postoperative enophthalmos improved after fracture repair. Surgery was associated with a low rate of postoperative complications. No apparent difference in surgical outcome was seen between early (within 2 weeks) and late surgical repair.
Simon
Guy J Ben
GJ
Jules Stein Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Syed
Hasan M
HM
McCann
John D
JD
Goldberg
Robert A
RA