[Surgical treatment of diplopia caused by fractures of the orbital floor].

Oculomotor disturbance resulting from orbital floor fractures have different etiologic factors, sometimes damage of one of the ocular motor nerves, caused by direct injury to the orbit; this damage occurs also to one or more of the extrinsic ocular muscles, especially the obliques; frequently, the diplopia is caused by prolapsed orbital tissues with or without muscle entrapment or by a muscle fibrosis; when the diplopia appears after orbital floor reconstruction there is often a palsy of the inferior rectus muscle in front of silicone implant or bone graft on the orbital floor. In oculomotor disturbance after orbital floor fracture, the first stage will be to recognize the mechanism of the diplopia by a clinical examination, motility in the nine positions, Hess Charts, binocular vision and field, forced duction, radiography and sometimes coronal computed tomography which also allow visualization of soft tissues densities, including all extraocular muscles. If there is an indication of orbital surgery, it will be done always in first; oculomotor surgery will be done if necessary at the second stage, if there is a permanent diplopia without evolution during six months. The purpose of the treatment is to obtain orthophoria in primary position and in down gaze. A series of cases of fracture of the orbital floor with resulting diplopia are described. The method, the time, and the indications of orbital or oculomotor surgery are discussed according the variety of cases.