Lateral canthotomy and inferior cantholysis: an effective method of urgentorbital decompression for sight threatening acute retrobulbar haemorrhage

Retrobulbar haemorrhage (RBH) occurs in a variety of situations. It can com plicate facial fractures, orbital surgery and retrobulbar injections and ca n occur spontaneously. It is relatively uncommon and sight-threatening RBH is even less common. If not detected early enough it can lead to devastatin g loss of vision. We have collected five cases of acute RBH, following trau ma, associated with a profound reduction in vision. In each case a permanen t loss of vision was avoided using a lateral canthotomy and inferior cantho lysis approach to obtain urgent orbital decompression. We describe two cases below. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.