Eye socket and eyelid reconstruction using the combined island frontal flap and retroauricular island flap: a preliminary report.

Abstract

One-stage eye socket and eyelid reconstruction was performed, with relatively satisfactory results, on a patient with a broad forehead. This was done after the complete exenteration of the orbit, using an island frontal flap and a retroauricular island flap with the common superficial temporal vessels. A Foley urethral catheter and a continuous suction drainage tube were effective for good wound healing between the bony orbit and a skin bag, made with a frontal flap, which was hidden in the orbital cavity. On the eighth postoperative day, the skin incision producing the false palpebral fissure was made, and it was enlarged slightly thereafter. A nylon implant was inserted into the orbital apex and cartilage grafts from the auricle to the false upper and lower eyelids were performed secondarily. The fundamental consideration of the eye socket and facial coverage corresponding to the eyelids and the possibility of modification of the author's method are briefly discussed.