[Radiologic diagnosis of orbital lesions--a comparison of methods (author's transl)]

Computed tomography has become the primary radiological procedure to evaluate disease of the orbit, to localize it exactly and to demonstrate its effect on neighbouring structures. In the past few years, considerable progress has resulted from improvement in the equipment, especially in three dimensional visualization of the area by introduction of the coronal and sagittal planes of section either indirectly by computer reconstruction of the coronal and sagittal plane from data obtained from routine transverse scanning or directly by appropriate positioning of the patient in these planes. Three dimensional CT technique is essential for precise localisation, delineation and differentiation of combined lesions of the face, the skull base and the orbits. Although by all this improvement of CT the possibility for exact diagnosis has increased, conventional neuroradiological examinations are still often necessary as a complimentary study to CT, especially in disease which involves the bone.