Orbital exenteration - a salvage procedure?

Orbital exenteration is a procedure performed usually for malignancies. The subsequent reconstructive efforts are directed towards rapid and stable healing but allowing detection of recurrent disease, obliteration of any communication between the orbit and surrounding cavities and above all a good quality of life. The surgical options must be tailored to each patient; we have to achieve first disease control and to compensate a 3D defect as best as we can. In the following, we present a series of three patients with aggressive tumors of the midface, admitted in our clinic in the last four years. For each case, orbital exenteration was performed in order to achieve tumor clearance. The results were good excepting one case (a relapse at three years interval) with a squamous cell carcinoma and perineural invasion.