To investigate the surgical results of early and delayed repair of orbital wall fracture after multiple subgrouping of patients by time between the operation and injury.

Eighty-eight eyes of 88 patients who underwent orbital wall fracture repair from January 2002 to December 2014 and who were followed up for more than 3 months postoperatively were included in this study. We divided the 88 patients into three groups: Early surgery group (surgery within 2 weeks after the injury), slightly delayed surgery group (surgery between 3 weeks and 2 months after the injury), delayed surgery group (surgery after 2 months of the injury). Preoperative and postoperative ocular motility, diplopia, and the degree of enophthalmos were analyzed retrospectively.

The early surgery group consisted of 30 eyes; slightly delayed surgery group, 42 eyes; and delayed surgery group, 16 eyes. The mean duration between injury and surgery was 8.6 ± 22.5 weeks in all patients, 1.5 ± 0.5 weeks in the early surgery group, 3.5 ± 1.3 weeks in the slightly delayed surgery group, and 35.3 ± 44.7 weeks in the delayed surgery group. All patients were followed up for a mean of 12.9 ± 10.8 weeks. Gaze limitation in all directions showed improvement in all groups, with the most shown in up gaze limitation. There were no significant differences in the degree of improvement between preoperative and postoperative gaze limitation among the three groups. Enophthalmos improved as well, without any significant differences among the three groups.

Improvement in ocular motility limitation and enophthalmos after orbital wall fracture repair did not vary significantly according to the duration between the surgery and injury. Therefore, surgical repairment even for old orbital fractures may successfully treat enophthalmos or diplopia and relieve symptoms.