An enucleation or evisceration involves removal of the eye and placement of an implant along with an ocular prosthesis. This is done is cases of trauma, cancer, or a blind, painful eye related to other ophthalmic conditions. Orbital, eye socket reconstructive surgery is the where a socket that has once lost an eye but has had an evisceration or enucleation has been rebuilt. Sometimes after the surgery the socket takes on changes like scarring and loss of volume. This makes it difficult for a prosthetic eye to rest and can be quite uncomfortable. Furthermore, the socket could be disfigured. Dr. Morris has extensive background and experience in dealing with socket damage and orbital reconstructive surgery. There are several techniques in which the Dr. Morris can employ to rebuild or perform surgery on the eye socket. She will help you determine which course of action is best suited for your case.
Below are a list of procedures that can be used to reconstruct the eye:
- Dermis-Fat Grafting – A portion of the patient’s abdomen or thigh is taken and used for the reconstruction of the eye-socket where volume has been lost or scarring has occurred.
- Buccal Mucosal Grafting – This is where a portion of tissue from a graft has been taken from the inside of a patient’s mouth and is then used for the surface of the eye socket reconstruction.
- Alloderm Grafting or Amniotic Membrane Grafting – This is when alternative types of tissue grafts are used in substitution for the Buccal Mucosal type of graft. An advantage of using this technique is the grafts are not collected from the patient’s body so only one surgery is needed.
- Secondary Placement of an Orbital Implant – This is when an implant that is already placed in the eye socket needs to be taken out because of complications or infection. Sometimes it may be due to the shrinking of the volume of the eye socket (enophthalmos). The result could be that the implant needs to be removed and Dr. Morris will then replace it with another piece of tissue. If an infection is present, more surgeries may be needed so the infection can heal once the implant is removed.
- Eyelid Reconstruction – When the eyelids need to be completely rebuilt like in Ptosis, lid deformities, and lower malpositions. These can be addressed at the same time of another type of eye socket or orbital reconstruction surgery.
- Intraorbital Injection – In certain cases, Dr. Morris may be able to use fillers to help reconstruct the eye socket.
