Management of the trochlea of the superior oblique muscle in the repair of orbital roof trauma.

PURPOSE: This study evaluated whether reattachment of the trochlea is necessary to assure normal postoperative extraocular muscle movements after orbital roof exploration and trochlea detachment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective review of 889 operative records of one surgeon practicing at a level I trauma center between January 1, 1992 and December 31, 1998. Three hundred twenty-four of these cases were trauma related, 97 of which involved the upper facial third or upper midface. From this group, 15 patients required orbital roof exploration with trochlea detachment. Age, gender, cause of injury, form of craniofacial injury, method of repair, materials used, date of first notation of intact extraocular movement, and date of last follow-up were recorded and analyzed.
RESULTS: From among the 15 patients requiring orbital roof exploration and repair, 14 (93%) were male, with a mean age of 34.7 +/- 15.2 years. Eight (53%) were involved in motor vehicle accidents, 3 (20%) in motorcycle accidents, and 4 (27%) in high-energy impacts. Most (95%) had injuries that included the frontal sinus, the naso-orbital-ethmoid region (60%), and the orbital rims (60%). After bitemporal flap reflection, careful subperiosteal dissection, supraorbital and supratrochlear nerve repositioning, and trochlea detachment, simple reapproximation of the orbital soft tissues to the reconstructed orbit resulted in satisfactory extraocular muscle movements in all cases.
CONCLUSIONS: When careful subperiosteal dissection is used, simple reapproximation of the soft tissues adjacent to the reconstructed orbital roof, without reattachment of the trochlea, is all that was necessary to assure satisfactory extraocular muscle movements postoperatively.