Possibility of Using Standard Plates for Orbital Fracture.

Objectives: Absorbable plates are sometimes grafted for treating orbital fractures. These plates cannot be readily processed to fit the shape of the fracture site, particularly when the fracture encompasses a broad area from the medial toward the inferior wall. Preparing the plates in a standard shape beforehand will be useful. Thus, in this study, the authors measured the orbital wall distance in healthy orbits to determine the mean orbital size with the ultimate goal of developing and clinically applying a standard plate for orbital fracture.

Methods: Measurements were performed for the left eye orbit on computed tomography images using a three-dimensional medical image processing workstation. The authors measured the orbital wall distances and angle of healthy orbits in 40 males and 40 females to determine the mean size of the orbit.

Results: In healthy orbits, no significant difference was noticeable in the angle between medial wall and inferior wall between males and females. The medial, inferior, and medial + inferior wall distances were markedly longer in males than in females (P < 0.05).

Discussions: The orbital shapes had the same pattern in males and females. The standard plate would be adaptable to all cases if it were produced with the medial wall + inferior wall distance greater than the maximum value in males and trimmed to fit the orbit form of the patient.

Conclusions: The results would be the basis of creating a standard plate and using it after appropriate adjustments.