Incidence and Risk Factors of Inferior Rectus Muscle Palsy in Pediatric Orbital Blowout Fractures

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence, clinical features, and risk factors of sustaining inferior rectus (IR) palsy in a group of pediatric patients with orbital floor blowout fractures. We performed a retrospective case review of sequential cases of pediatric orbital floor blowout fractures (<18 years old) from 2000 to 2013 in a tertiary ophthalmic center in Singapore. A total of 48 patients were included in our study, of whom 5 had IR palsy (10.4%). Patients with IR palsy had a higher mean age (16.4 ± 1.5 years) compared with patients without IR palsy (12.4 ± 3.3 years), had significantly ( p < 0.05) worse preoperative motility, and had significantly greater proportion developing postoperative hypertropia (100%) compared with patients without IR palsy (4.7%). Our series of pediatric blowout fractures demonstrated IR palsy prevalence and clinical features for IR palsy which may be distinct to the pediatric group.