Bone changes in the adult anophthalmic orbit influencing oculoplastic reconstructive considerations

Decreased orbital development following enucleation is a well recognized condition in the young person and is lessened by orbital implantation at the time of inital surgery. Pfeiffer, some 30 years ago, suggested that bone changes as well as the soft tissue changes could also continue to take place in the adult resulting in added orbital changes. While this has been questioned, the findings originally reported by Pfeiffer are firmly substantiated by roentgenograms and documented in this report. If there has been a significant interval of time following the enucleation, careful roentgenographic evaluation prior to cosmetic oculoplastic revision of the orbit should be done even in the adult.