Bovine pericardium as a wrapping for orbital implants

Purpose: We report the use of bovine pericardium as an alternative wrapping for porous orbital implants after enucleation. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of all patients who receiv ed a bovine pericardium-wrapped orbital implant after enucleation by the au thors between August 1, 1996, and December 1, 1999. Results: Eighty patients underwent placement of bovine pericardium-wrapped orbital implants. The average age at the time of implantation was 49.3 year s (range, 5 years to 83 years). The mean follow-up interval was 11.8 months (range, 2 to 41 months). There were no intraoperative complications. No pa tient had secondary systemic infection or showed evidence of rejection. The re was no clinical evidence to suggest that vascularization of the porous i mplant was unusually delayed, and there were no complications after seconda ry drilling and placement of a coupling post. Four (5%) of 80 patients had complications requiring removal of the spherical implant. All 4 patients ha d hydroxyapatite implants. Two patients had significant exposure requiring removal of the implant at 2 months after surgery; 1 patient had a chronic f istulous tract with secondary infection 3 years after surgery; and 1 patien t had chronic orbital pain requiring removal of the implant at 1 year after surgery. Conclusions: The incidence of implant exposure was less than 4%. This compa res favorably to the incidence of exposure of 9% to 21% reported in recent literature. Other complications were few and of minimal clinical significan ce. The authors conclude that bovine pericardium is a viable option to scle ra as a wrapping for porous orbital implants.