Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To observe material characteristics of hydroxyapatite orbital implant and the application in orbital reconstruction through the literature search and clinical evaluation.
METHODS: VIP database (http://www.cqvip.com/) and Pubmed database (http://www.ncbinlm.nih.gov/PubMed) were searched on computer for articles related with sunken eye and orbital reconstruction by orbital implants, basic research articles and repetitive research were excluded, 47 patients (47 eyes) underwent hydroxyapatite orbital implants for reconstruction at Department of Ophthalmology, the Fourth People’s Hospital of Shenyang, were summarized.
RESULTS: According to different conditions of affected eyes, 29 cases received one-stage implants and 18 received second-stage implants. After 10-12 months of follow-up, no obvious complications of one-stage implantation was observed, while four cases appeared complications after secondary implantation, including conjunctival incision dehiscence in 2 cases, self-healing in 1 case, healing by surgical repair in 1 case, shallow lower fornix in 1 case, who was corrected after surgical repair; implant exposure in 1 case, who was healed by conjunctival patch covered by the sclera. The rest patients healed at one stage, with no infection or no occurrence of cross-ophthalmia, full eye socket, good dynamic of artificial eye, plastic results were satisfactory.
CONCLUSION: Hydroxyapatite orbital implant with good histocompatibility, no toxicity or no antigenicity, is an effective approach to treat sudden eye and to improve the orbital activity following enucleation or evisceration of eye. Biological factors of the materials still have some complications, mainly implant exposure, abnormal location, infection and conjunctival incision dehiscence, and shallow lower fornix.