Comparison of the outcomes of non-trapdoor-type blowout fracture repair according to the time of surgery.

PURPOSE: We classified the outcomes of non-trapdoor-type blowout fracture repair by surgical indications and then compared the outcomes according to the time of treatment.

METHODS

The medical records of 591 patients with orbital fractures that were treated surgically within 30 days of trauma were included in the study. The enrolled patients were classified into 2 groups by the major surgical indications: 1 group included patients with diplopia or limited extraocular motion, and the other group of patients had significant enophthalmos (>2 mm) or a large fracture on computed tomography (>½). The clinical outcomes were compared between the patients who received surgical repair within 14 days of trauma (early) and those who received treatment from 15 to 30 days after the trauma (delayed) in each group.

RESULTS

Two hundred thirty-three patients received surgical repair because of diplopia or limited extraocular motion. Both the early repaired group (n = 195) and the delayed repaired group (n = 38) showed significant improvement after surgeries. The degree of preoperative and postoperative diplopia and limited extraocular motion was not associated with differences between the 2 groups. Four hundred one patients received surgical repair because of enophthalmos (>2 mm) or a large fracture on computed tomography (>½). Both the early repaired group (n = 328) and the delayed repaired group (n = 73) showed significant improvement of the enophthalmos after surgeries. The degree of preoperative/postoperative enophthalmos did not show differences between the 2 groups.

CONCLUSIONS

If the blowout fracture repairs were performed within a month, the surgical outcomes did not differ according to the time of surgery in the cases of nontrapdoor blowout fracture.