The Correlation between the Orbital Volume Ratio and Enophthalmos in Unoperated Blowout Fractures

BACKGROUND: Enophthalmos may not appear immediately after trauma due to periorbital swelling in a blowout fracture, and preoperative measurements of enophthalmos cannot be used as a reliable guideline. It is important to predict the eventual final extent of enophthalmos in order to determine whether to perform surgery, and there have been several attempts to predict the degree of late enophthalmos using preoperative orbital volume. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between the orbital volume ratio (OVR) with final enophthalmos and the palpebral fissure, and to find the OVR that induced 2 mm of enophthalmos in unilateral unoperated blowout fractures. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 38 patients and divided them into 3 groups, determined by the fracture location. The relationships between the OVR and both the degree of enophthalmos and the palpebral fissure ratio (PFR) were assessed and, in particular, the OVR that induced 2 mm of enophthalmos was sought. RESULTS: Enophthalmos increased in proportion to the OVR, and there was a highly significant correlation between the increase in the OVR and the degree of enophthalmos (P<0.05). On the other hand, there was no correlation between OVR and PFR (P>0.05). The OVR that induced 2-mm enophthalmos was 112.18%. CONCLUSIONS: The final degree of enophthalmos can be estimated by the preoperative measurement of OVR. Preoperative measurements of OVR can be used as quantitative values to predict the final degree of enophthalmos in pure blowout fractures.