Normal periocular anthropometric measurements in an Australian population

To report the normative ocular and periocular anthropometric measurements in an Australian cohort and investigate how these may be affected age, gender, and ethnicity.

Prospective study of patients presenting to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Patient with orbital or eyelid disease, previous surgery, craniofacial abnormalities, pupil abnormalities, strabismus, and poor image quality was excluded. Standardised photographs were taken in a well-illuminated room. A green dot with a diameter of 24 mm was placed on the participant's foreheads for calibration between pixels and millimetres. Ocular and periocular landmarks were segmented to calculate the periorbital measurements. Independent sample t test was used to compare male and female subjects, Pearson's correlation was used to correlate periocular dimensions with age, and ANOVA with Bonferroni was used to compare periocular dimension between ethnic groups.

Seven hundred and sixty eyes from 380 participants (215 female, mean age 58 ± 18 years) were included. The mean marginal reflex distance (MRD) 1 was 3.5 mm and decreased with increasing age (r =  - 0.09, p = 0.01) and MRD 2 was 5.2 mm. Compared to Caucasians, African subjects had a significantly larger interpupillary distance and outer intercanthal distance, whereas East Asians had a significantly larger inner intercanthal distance (p < 0.05). The values of marginal reflex distance 2, palpebral fissure height, horizontal palpebral aperture, inner intercanthal distance, interpupillary distance and outer intercanthal distance were significantly higher in male subjects than female subjects (p < 0.05).

Normative periocular dimensions may vary according to age, gender, and ethnicity. An understanding of normal periocular dimensions is important in the evaluation of orbital disease across different ethnic groups and may serve as reference points for oculoplastic surgery and industry.