COMPARISON OF REAL-TIME ULTRASONOGRAPHY AND CORONAL COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF ORBITAL FRACTURES

Real-time ultrasonography (US) was used to evaluate the bony orbit in 19 patients who had sustained orbital trauma. The ability of US to dem onstrate clinically significant orbital fractures was compared with th at of thin-section coronal computed tomography (CT); the latter method was treated as definitive. US had a sensitivity of 92%, a specificity of 100% and a positive predictive value of 100%. Quantification of th e size of fragments by the two methods yielded similar results. Real-t ime US adequately displayed the anatomic features of the orbit and det ected clinically significant fractures. This technique may have a role in post-traumatic imaging of the orbit when coronal CT is not possibl e.