Stephan Carl N, Huang Anne J R, Davidson Paavi L
Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia.
J Forensic Sci. 2009 Mar;54(2):267-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00982.x. Epub 2008 Feb 6.
Recently a small sampled cadaver study (n = 4) suggested that the human eyeballs are placed closer to the orbital roof and lateral orbital wall as first reported in the anatomical literature many years previously. This contrasts with central positioning of the eyeball within the orbit as advocated by the facial approximation literature. Given the limits of such small samples, this study re-examined globe position in nine new cadavers to help clarify which relationship is accurate. The results essentially confirm prior empirical findings except that the mean lateral divergences from the orbit center were found to be larger--the eyeball was found to be "displaced" 1.4 mm superiorly and 2.4 mm laterally. Medians calculated across all 13 cadavers from this study and the above-mentioned recent report refine these measurements to 1.4 and 2.3 mm respectively. Globe projection values were identical to those observed for living individuals (c. 16 mm).
