Effects of hyperbaric oxygen on infraorbital nerve injury induced by zygomatic orbital floor fractures or surgery

Abstract

Objective To explore the therapeutic effect of HBO on infraorbital nerve injury induced by accidental impact or surgery,and also to study differences in the prognosis of neural functional recovery between these two lesions.Methods Recovery of 57 cases of infraorbital nerve injury treated in our hospital since March,2008,was analyzed.Of the 57 cases,38 (the traumatic injury group) had zygomatic orbital floor fractures due to traumatic injury,and 19 (the surgical reposition group) had infraorbital nerve numbness induced by surgical reposition following zygomatic orbital floor fractures.For the patients of the traumatic injury group,18 patients received conventional or conservative therapy,while another 20 patients were given HBO therapy in addition to conventional therapy.All the patients paid return visits,1 week,1 month,3 months,6 months,12 months and 24 months after treatment to find out recovery of infraorbital nerve function.Results of the 2-year examinations were used as reference data to judge if infraorbital nerve function was completely or partially recovered or failed to recover.Then,recovery of the patients in the 2 groups was compared and verified with chisquare tests,so as to know the clinical effects of HBO on the recovery of nerve function.In addition,chisquare test was used to compare the recovery of infraorbital nerve function in patients of the two HBO groups,and also to find out differences in the prognosis of the patients with different causes of disease,following HBO therapy.Results In patients with zygomatic orbital floor fracture induced by accidental impact,neural functional recovery of the HBO group was obviously superior (with an improvement rate of 90％) than that of the non-HBO group (with an improvement rate of 83.8％) (x2 =20.8367,P ＜ 0.05).In the patients that had infraorbital nerve numbness after surgical reposition,neural functional recovery of the HBO group was also obviously superior (with an improvement rate of 100％) than that of the non-HBO group (with an improvement rate of 87.5％) (x2 =40.6526,P ＜ 0.05).In the 2 groups of patients that all received HBO therapy,the prognosis of the patients that had infraorbital nerve numbness after surgical reposition was obviously superior than that of the accidental impact group (x2 =52.5148,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Research results indicated that HBO therapy could produce obvious effect on the recovery of infraorbital neural function damaged by trauma or surgical procedures,with the therapeutic effect on the cases induced by infraorbital neural damage after surgery being more superior.However,further research was required with respect to therapeutic time,dosage and selection of related parameters. Key words: Hyperbaric oxygen; Infraorbital nerve injury; Zygomatic orbital floor fractures