Unusual orbital foreign bodies

Abstract

Retained intraorbital organic foreign bodies, particularly wooden, are commonly encountered in ophthalmologic practice. We treated two children who had sustained such injury while playing. They presented to us with non-healing sinus with purulent discharge. In one of the patients, X-rays and CT scan helped to clinch the diagnosis, whereas in the other patient diagnosis was possible by correlating history with clinical findings. Surgical exploration in both patients helped us to remove the foreign bodies. Surprisingly, both the foreign bodies were 7 cm long wooden pieces. We, however, caution that management of such cases should be conservative and that surgical exploration be done only in case of complication. From our experience, we recommend proper localisation by all possible means, blunt dissection, careful haemostasis coupled with excellent lighting and exposure in the atraumatic removal of intraorbital foreign bodies.