[Orbital measurements in Zairian children. Inner canthal, outer orbital, inter-pupillary distances and proptosis].

Measurements of outer orbital distance, inner canthal distance and of interpupillary distance and proptosis were performed on 95 healthy Zairian subjects. The subjects were aged from 2 1/2 to 18 years. There were 47 boys (mean age +/- SD, 9.74 +/- 4.4 years) and 48 girls (mean age +/- SD, 9.07 +/- 4.1 years). No statistically significant difference was found between the two sexes for the mean age. Subjects were divided in four age groups: the first age group included children aged from 2 1/2 to 6 years (mean age +/- SD, 4.62 +/- 1.31 years), the second age group included children aged from 7 to 10 years (mean age, 8.32 +/- 1.22 years), the third included subjects aged from 11 to 14 years (mean age +/- SD, 12 +/- 1.06 years) and the fourth included subjects aged from 15 to 18 years (mean age +/- SD, 17 +/- 3 years). The measurements were performed with the Hertel exophthalmometer for the proptosis and the outer orbital distance, with the pupillometer model PD-2 meter for the interpupillary distance; with a ruler for the inner canthal distance. The mean +/- SD inner canthal was 27.4 +/- 2.7 mm for the first age group, 29.7 +/- 3.1 mm for the second age group, 30 +/- 2.4 mm for the third age group and 32.2 +/- 3.1 mm for the fourth age group. The mean +/- SD outer orbital was 100.0 +/- 4.4 mm for the first age group, 106.5 +/- 4.6 mm for the second age group, 111.7 +/- 6.8 mm for the third age group and 118.5 +/- 6.4 mm for the fourth age group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)