Saccade Analysis in Patients With Orbital-Wall Fractures Without Diplopia

This study aimed to analyze saccades in patients with orbital-wall fractures with little or no ocular motor impairment.

We included 7 eyes of 7 patients with unoperated orbital-wall fractures (3 cases of orbital-floor fractures and 4 cases of medial orbital-wall fractures) with mild or no diplopia who presented to our hospital between August 2019 and March 2021. Eye movements were assessed at the first visit and after 1 month using the Hess area ratio according to the Hess screen test, binocular single vision (BSV) scores (total 59 points) obtained using Goldman perimetry, and maximum velocity and amplitude of saccades within 15 degrees obtained using an eye tracker system.

Hess area ratio and BSV scores at the first visit and after 1 month were 88.6±8.2% and 97.4±3.6% and 49.6±8.5 points and 53.5±6.6 points, respectively, with no significant change (Hess area ratio, P =0.06; BSV, P =0.44). Next, the authors compared the velocity and amplitude of the saccades between the first visit and 1 month later and found no significant changes in any of the 4 directions (adduction, abduction, upgaze, and downgaze). Similarly, no significant differences were observed between the velocity and amplitude of the saccades between the injured and noninjured eyes, both at the first visit and after 1 month.

In patients with orbital-wall fractures with little or no eye movement impairment, eye tracker-based saccade analysis showed that the saccade velocity and amplitude did not change during the natural course of healing of the fracture.