Assessment of a Consecutive Series of Orbital Floor Fracture Repairs With the Hess Area Ratio and the Use of Unsintered Hydroxyapatite Particles/Poly l-Lactide Composite Sheets for Orbital Fracture Reconstruction

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to report the outcomes of a series of orbital fracture repairs, their assessment with the Hess area ratio (HAR%), and the use of unsintered hydroxyapatite (HA) implants for reconstruction. This study involved 207 consecutive unilateral orbital fractures with symptomatic diplopia that underwent surgical repair within 28 days of injury. Ocular movement was measured presurgery and at 3 and 6 months postsurgery by Hess chart with calculation of the HAR%. Surgery was conducted on 207 patients (161 males and 46 females; mean age, 27.8years) at a mean of 9.9days postinjury and with a mean follow-up of 8.6months. There were 160 patients with orbital floor fractures, 27 with medial wall fractures, and 20 with combined orbital medial wall and floor fractures, 135 of 207 patients had orbital blowout fractures, and 72 had orbital trap-door fractures. The HAR% improved significantly from a mean of 73.8% preoperatively to 92.7% postoperatively (P<.01). Orbital fractures were reconstructed with either unsintered HA particles/poly l-lactide composite sheet (133 patients), a silicone silastic sheet (47 patients), a combination of sheets (15 patients), or without an implant (12 patients). There was no significant difference in the HAR% improvement between the different implants. Very good outcomes can be achieved with early orbital floor fracture repair surgery, which can be assessed preoperatively and postoperatively by HAR%. Unsintered HA/poly l-lactide composite sheets are an effective absorbable material for orbital floor fracture reconstruction.