Anterior vestibule salvaging technique to limit silicone orbital implant extrusion following evisceration

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The anterior vestibule salvaging (‘Birdcage’) technique may limit orbital implant extrusion following evisceration.

Methods: A 10-year retrospective chart review from 2005 to 2015 of individuals who underwent evisceration procedures utilizing the vestibule salvaging technique was performed.

Results: A total of 96 patients (61 male; 35 female; average age 64 years; range 17–96 years) underwent evisceration with a technique avoiding anterior scleral relaxing incisions. Three (3.1%) patients had documented extrusion of the silicone implant. Time from evisceration to extrusion ranged from 26 to 372 days.

Conclusions: Maintenance of the anterior scleral vestibule during evisceration may decrease extrusion rates after surgery compared with traditional evisceration techniques that utilize anterior relaxing incisions.

KEYWORDS:

• Evisceration
• extrusion
• silicone implant
• surgical technique

Contributorship

All authors made a substantial contribution to the study design and acquisition and interpretation of the data. Each author participated in drafting or revising the manuscript and approved submission of this version for publication.

Ethics

Study design and approval was obtained by the Indiana University Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics committee prior to initiation of the retrospective chart review.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

Supported by an unrestricted grant to Indiana University from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. (New York, NY). The funding party did not have any role in the study design, collection of data, analysis of data, writing of the manuscript, or decision to submit the manuscript.