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Review
. 2017 Sep 29;9(9):e1725.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.1725.

Penetrating Orbital Injuries: A Review

Faizullah Mashriqi  1 , Joe Iwanaga  2 , Marios Loukas  3 , Anthony V D'Antoni  1 , R Shane Tubbs  4
Affiliations
Review

Penetrating Orbital Injuries: A Review

Faizullah Mashriqi et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Penetrating injuries to the orbit represent a small but very complicated portion of head injuries. Because of the close proximity to many vital structures, any penetrating orbital injury requires a multidisciplinary follow-up. Cases of penetrating injuries have flooded the literature, but no one has presented a systematic approach to the complications associated with these types of injuries. Herein, we present the complications associated with each orbital entry mode: superior, inferior, medial, lateral rims of the orbit, and extraorbital entry.

Keywords: knife; orbit; pen; pencil; penetrating injury; rim.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. 3D CT reconstruction of an adolescent who had fallen on a wooden stake (arrow). The stake entered the right orbit and traversed the ethmoid sinuses to become intracranial.
3D CT: three-dimensional computed tomography
Figure 2
Figure 2. Axial head CT of a female child who fell onto a metal rod that entered the right medial orbit, traversed the ethmoid sinuses, and entered the left middle cranial fossa just lateral to the sella turcica.
CT: computed tomography
Figure 3
Figure 3. 3D CT reconstruction of a child who fell on a writing pen. The pen entered the right orbit, then followed the skull base to end just anterior to the internal carotid artery.
3D CT: three-dimensional computed tomography
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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