A preliminary study on CT and computer-based method for unilateral post-traumatic enophthalmos associated with impure orbital fractures

Objective To preliminarily establish a method based on CT image and 3-dimensional software for measurement of the injured orbit volume and its correlation to post-traumatic enophthalmos.Methods The morphology and volumes of the orbital content were investigated in 7 consecutive patients with unilateral impure orbital fractures before treatment by using a 3-dimensional software program based CT image digital data. The variety in shape and volume between the normal and the injured orbit were analysed to find the alteration of orbital region and contribute to enophthalmos. According to the results, the operations were performed. The same items were assessed postoperativly.Results The change of the shape of the injured orbit can occur at the anterior, medium and posterior orbital wall and the normal conical shape were lost. Compared with orbital rim fractures, orbital wall fractures were closely relative to post-traumatic enophthalmos. Postoperatively, all patients had an obvious improvement in appearance, the degree of enophthalmos and the difference of the orbital volume were reduced.Conclusion Computer-assisted program enables the surgeon to predict reconstructive surgical steps and to evaluate the results of the surgery.