Ocular Injuries in Patients of Zygomatico-Complex (ZMC) Fractures

Mid face injuries commonly destroy the integrity of the orbital skeleton, and are frequently complicated by injury to the eye, ranging between 2.7 and 90.6 % as reported in literature. The eye injuries range from simple subconjunctival haemorrhage to globe rupture. The paper aims to study the types of ocular injuries in patients with ZMC fractures.

A study of 67 patients, who had sustained facial trauma sufficient to lead to a facial bone fracture, was undertaken in the department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Govt Dental College, Srinagar from 2008 to 2014 and the patients received a comprehensive examination by an ophthalmologist within 1 week of injury. All the patients sustaining confirmed ZMC fracture were examined by an ophthalmologist for any associated ocular injury. A thorough ophthalmologic examination included assessment of visual acuity, pupillary reactivity, anterior and posterior segment examination and extraocular motility. The variables reviewed included patient's gender, mechanism of injury, visual acuity, pupillary reactivity, extra ocular motility, presence or absence of diplopia, ocular and orbital findings, and intraorbital hypoesthesia.

The most common etiology of trauma was RTA (64.1 %), followed by falls (14.9 %) in our study. In our study 83.5 % of the patients were males. Minor ocular injuries such as subconjunctival haemorrhage and corneal injury accounted for most of the cases. Subconjunctival haemorrhage was the most common injury, present in 86.5 % of the cases. Hyphema was present 13.4 %, vitreous haemorrhage 2.98 %, retinal haemorrhage 1.49 %, corneal abrasion 4.47 %, mydriasis 1.49 %, choroidal rupture 5.97 %, retinal detachment 2.98 %, decreased visual activity 13.4 %, retinal tear and angle recession was present 7.46 % times.

ZMC fractures are associated with higher incidence of ocular injuries. The incidence of traumatic optic neuropathy and other ocular injuries warrants a prompt ophthalmologic examination of all patients with ZMC fractures as quickly as possible to prevent morbidity.