Spontaneous Bony Orbital Auto-Decompression in Thyroid Ophthalmopathy

Abstract

Orbital ‘auto-decompression’ in TED (thyroid eye disease) is a well recognised phenomenon in older patients where lax orbital septa allow proptosis to decompress the orbit. Bony ‘auto-decompression’ in TED is a different entity which to the best of our knowledge has not been previously reported. We describe such a case which presented spontaneously, in the absence of trauma or bony pathology, and discuss possible causes.

KEYWORDS:

• Decompression
• spontaneous
• enophthalmos
• thyroid
• eye
• fracture