Abstract
Purpose: Endoscopic transnasal correction of the blowout fractures has many advantages over other techniques. But after removal of packing material, there were some patients with recurrence of preoperative symptoms. Authors tried to make a quantitative anterograde analysis of orbital volume change over whole perioperative period which might be related with recurrence of preoperative symptoms. Methods: 10 patients with pure medial wall fracture(Group I) and 10 patients with medial wall fracture combined with fracture of orbital floor(Group II) were selected to evaluate the final orbital volume change, who took 3 CT scans, pre-, postoperative and 4 months after packing removal. By multiplying cross - section area of orbit in coronal view with section thickness, orbital volume were calculated. Then, mean orbital volume increment after trauma, mean orbital volume decrement after endoscopic correction and volume increment after packing removal were found out. And we tried to find correlations between type of fracture, initial correction rate and final correction rate. Results: The mean orbital volume increment of the fractured orbits were 7.23% in group I and 13.69% in group II. After endoscopic surgery, mean orbital volume decrement were 11.0% in group I and 12.46% in group II. Mean volume increment after packing removal showed 3.10% in group I and 6.50% in group II. The initial correction rate(%) showed linear correlation with final correction rate(%) after packing removal. And there were negative linear correlation between increment percentage of orbital volume by fracture and final correction rate(%). Conclusion: Orbital volume was proved to be increasing after removal of packing or foley catheter and it was dependent upon type of fracture. Overcorrection should be done to improve the final result of orbital blowout fracture especially when there are severe fracture is present.
