Osteoplastic Orbitotomy for Surgical Treatment of Isolated Orbital Tumors

Abstract

Orbital tumors are a difficult pathology for surgical removal and are additionally complicated by the issue of selecting a proper surgical approach. Currently, the choice of approach remains debatable for the surgical treatment of orbital tumors. This paper presents a retrospective analysis of 26 patients with isolated orbital tumors who were operated on in our neurosurgical center from 2012 till 2020. The series included 15 female and 11 male patients, whose age varied from 3 to 75 years. The most common symptoms of lesions were exophthalmia (20 pts), retrobulbar pain (15 pts) and visual disorders (6 pts). In all the considered cases, the tumors were removed via osteoplastic orbitotomy. 12 patients (46%) had a tumor in either central or lateral location, 5 (20%) – in superior location, 5 (20%) – in inferior location. 24 tumors (92%) were removed totally and 2 tumors (8%) – were removed subtotally. More than 70% of the treated tumors comprised hemangiomas, pseudotumors and tear-gland tumors. 18 patients preserved their acuity at the preoperative level; 6 patients improved their visual function; visual function degraded in 2 patients. Orbitotomy has proven to be an effective technique in the removal of the most of isolated intraorbital tumors excluding those of medial location.