Orbital Volume Changes During Growth And Development In Human Children Assessed Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography

Abstract

Purpose: To measure growth-related changes in orbital volume from childhood to the late teenage years. Design: A retrospective cohort study. Subjects: Healthy Caucasian children (ages 6–18 years) with existing serial craniofacial cone-beam computed tomography scans. The final sample consisted of 65 subjects (24 male, 41 female) and a total of 300 separate orbits. Methods: Each orbit was transformed into a closed space with well-defined boundaries, and orbital volume was measured using manual segmentation. A novel statistical analysis was applied to extract the maximum amount of longitudinal information from the data. Intra- and inter-operator correlation coefficients were calculated from replications performed on 10% of the sample. Main Outcome Measures: Orbital volume (mm3). Results: Orbital volume was found to increase at a rate of 1–2% annually until the late teenage years. Intra- and inter-operator agreement between repeated measurements were >90%. Conclusions: Orbital volume increases by 1–2% per year throughout childhood continuing until the late teens. Although this annual increase is small, it may be clinically relevant as it may lead to less-than-optimal long term surgical outcomes when reconstructive surgery for the pediatric anophthalmic socket is required.