Diagnostic difficulties with intraorbital foreign bogies: A case report

As a result of trauma, a foreign body can enter the orbit and, via the orbital fissures, the cranial cavity. The most common are metallic, which are easily seen in X-rays, while low-density foreign bodies cause diagnostics problems. A 27-year old patient underwent trauma of the left orbit when walking in a forest. Twenty-four hours after the trauma the patient came to the ophthalmology outpatient clinic with complaints of inability to move the upper eyelid. The cause of the complaint was a 6-cm-long piece of wood within the orbit which was penetrating the middle cranial fossa via the upper orbital fissure. X-rays are the bases of diagnosing orbito-cranial injures and are a sufficient radiological method when the foreign body is metallic. CT is indispensable for the precise localization of low-density foreign bodies, the estimation of injury, and for diagnosis. CT scans are not typical for each foreign body. In this case, the hypo density of the wood was initially misinterpreted as an intra orbital air edema. (author)