Joanna Basic

Joanna Basic, née Pace, carried out research for her doctoral thesis on treatment results when using three-dimensional Synthes orbital implants in the traumatic pure orbital floor and the combined orbital floor-medial wall blowout fractures.

The research was run at the military hospital, University of Ulm, in Germany and the results were produced in a doctoral thesis. The causes of trauma in her study patients were various, but mostly included sports accidents and altercation.

The prospective study involved initially 32 patients, nine of whom were excluded due to various reasons. The patients were all examined pre-operatively and post-operatively up till the third month. Four types of three-dimensional orbital implants exist: two small-sized implants for smaller orbits: left- and right-sided and two large-size implants for larger orbits, also left- and right-sided.

Intra-operatively, after placing the orbital implant (under the globe) to reduce the orbital fracture, a three-dimensional scan was done to check the accuracy of the implant. In this way, any inaccuracy of the implant position was recorded and the implant then modified accordingly, while the patient was still under general anesthetic.

The age at injury, gender distribution, extension of fractures, number of days awaited for surgery, in-patient duration, operation time, visual acuity, ocular motility limitation, double vision, globe position in three different planes, sensory disturbance to the maxillary nerve on the affected side, the intra-operative medications used, the post-operative or post-traumatic complications and the associated orbital and accompany injuries were recorded.

The surface areas of the fractures and the orbital volumes (pre-operative, contralateral and post-operative) were measured in each case by using the iPlan Cranial 3.0 computer software programme from BRAINLAB AG and the results then compared. Ms Basic found out an optimum reconstruction of the orbital floor and orbital floor-medial wall fractures with a very low complication rate in her treated patients.

The doctoral research was partly supported through the grant of a scholarship by STEPS (Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarships), which is in itself partly financed by the European Union through the European Social Fund.