Tolerance of orbital implants. Retrospective study on 14 years

The authors report the results of enucleations performed from 1985 to 1998 and the different orbital implants used. Material and methods: All patients undergoing enucleation from 1985 to 1998 were studied. Results: 68 men and 32 women had an enucleation. The main indication was tu moral diseases. principally choroidal melanomas and ciliary melanomas (resp ectively, 26 and 8). More rarely the indication was orbital metastasis or e yelid carcinoma. The follow indications were traumatisms and neovascular gl aucomas. The orbital implants used were mainly Alien implants, silicone imp lants and hydroxyapatite implants. The main complication was the expulsion of the implant, which occured in about 20% of the cases, for the most part in the group of silicone and tunnel implants patient. These expulsions were found less with hydroyxapatite implants. For the hydroxyapatite implants w e also noticed the some conjunctival erosion. The expulsion of the implant occured most often before 2 years. Conclusion: The authors report on the survey of orbital implants used for 1 4 years. They noticed the high frequency of expulsions when they used tunne l or silicone implants and better results with hydroxyapatite implant.