A cross sectional study to evaluate orbital tumors requiring surgical intervention in a tertiary care centre

Abstract

Introduction: Orbital mass lesions have various underlying pathological processes that may fall under the expertise of different medical specialties, each with their own management biases. There have been number of published reviews related to the incidence of various orbital tumors and space occupying lesions. We have conducted this study to evaluate orbital space occupying lesions which required surgical intervention. Methods: The medical records of all patients with histopathologically proven diagnosis of orbital tumors operated by a same surgeon at a tertiary eye care were reviewed retrospectively. Patients of all age groups were included in this study. Thyroid related orbitopathy, infective lesions and inflammatory lesions managed medically were excluded from the study. For each patient medical record was reviewed for various parameters. Results: There were 134 patients in our study. 74 (55.2%) were males and 60 (44.8%) were females, 96 (71.6%) were >16 years old and 38 (28.4%) were children (< 16 years). Most common symptom was swelling seen in 60 cases (44.78%). Fundus examination showed Choroidal folds in 15 cases (11.19%) and Swollen Disc in 11 cases (8.20%). Mostly lesions were extraconal in 98 cases (73.13%) followed by intraconal in 28 cases (20.90%). Majority lesions were primary tumors in 119 cases (88.81%) followed by secondary in 15 cases (11.19%). There were 102 benign tumors (76.11%), 30 malignant cases (22.39%) and 2 cases converted from benign to malignant (1.49%). Most common intervention done was Biopsy excision in 109 cases (81.34%) followed by Biopsy – Incision in 9 cases (6.72%), Biopsy –Debulking in 6 cases (4.48%) and Enucleation was done in 4 cases (2.99%). Conclusion: Orbital tumors differ amongst various age groups. The clinician should be able to arrive at a fairly accurate diagnosis in most cases allowing the clinician to provide better care to the patient.