[Repair of orbital exenteration cavities]

Several plastic surgical procedures can attenuate the unsightly effects of a disinhabited empty orbit. Only the imperatives of follow-up or very poor general status can still justify spontaneous epithelialisation, which we prefer to split skin graft. In other cases, apart from the exceptional indications of preservation of the eyelids and conjunctival sac, closure by flap is the technique of choice: temporo-frontal flap in cases of simple exenteration and temporo-jugal for the superficial plane and medio-frontal for the deep plane in radical exenterations. In young adults, when the resection is limited to the orbit, after flap closure, conjunctival reconstruction by means of a mucosal graft can be attempted without preliminary temporalis muscle transposition, as the orbital cavity is filled spontaneously and sufficiently by fibrous tissue.