Orbital Blow-Out Fracture In Benin City, Nigeria: An 11-Year Review

The incidence of orbital blow-out fracture as seen in University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin City is on the increase. This is due to the increasing rate of violence and road traffic accidents in our society. Whereas early recognition and management is associated with good outcome, delayed diagnosis and poor management invariably leads to poor prognosis. The aim of this article is to review the cases of orbital blow-out fractures seen/managed in UBTH, Benin City and to analyze the treatment of the cases and out-come of surgery. A total of eight patients who had orbital blow-out fracture over an eleven year period (1985-1989, 1997-2004), were retrospectively evaluated for age and sex distribution, clinical features at presentation, investigation, surgical procedure employed and outcome of surgery. There were equal number of males and females. Seventy-five percent (75%) of the patients had left eye involvement, with trauma from physical assault as the main mechanism of injury, while diplopia, enophathalmos and limitation of vertical eye movement were common clinical presentation. Surgical intervention carried out in all cases had satisfactory outcome. Early patient presentation, a high index of suspicion for diagnosis and good pre-operative assessment are needed for good surgical outcome. Keywords: Orbital Blow-Out Fracture, Diplopia, Enophthalmos, Blunt Eye Trauma, Sub-Labial Antrostomy Annals of Biomedical Science Vol. 4 (1) 2005: pp. 1-