Customized Hollow Occular Prosthesis

Abstract

The main objective in restoration of an anophthalmic socket with an ocular prosthesis is to enable the patient to better cope with the difficult process of rehabilitation. 1 The loss of part of the face effects mainly physical, social, and psychological behaviour of the people affected. 2 Maxillofacial prosthesis restores and replaces stomatognathic and associated facial structures with artificial substitutes which improves patient's aesthetics, restores and maintains health of the remaining structures, and consequently provides physical and mental well-being. 3 The loss or absence of an eye which is caused by a congenital defect, irreparable trauma, tumour, a painful blind eye, sympathetic ophthalmia needs evaluation through histologic confirmation of a suspected diagnosis. 4 Ocular morbidity is a major concern from clinical and socioeconomic perspectives, especially in East Asian countries, in view of its high prevalence and projections for increasing rate and severity of the condition 5 . Ocular prosthesis is a technique sensitive procedure requiring accurate duplication of natural colour, size, contour and ocular orientation which will provide realism and symmetry to the patient. In the current study the reason for blindness was open angle glaucoma. The surgical management of ocular defect includes evisceration, enucleation, or exenteration. Evisceration is a surgical procedure in which the intraocular contents of the globe are removed, leaving the sclera, Tenon's capsule, conjunctiva, extraocular muscles, and optic nerve undisturbed. 4 Enucleation is the surgical removal of the globe and a portion of the optic nerve from the orbit. 4 Exenteration is the en-bloc removal of the entire orbit, usually involving partial or total removal of the eyelids, and is performed primarily for eradication of malignant orbital tumors. 4 There are numerous techniques for processing an ocular prosthesis. 6,7,8,9 Mathews et al 10 classified ocular impression and fitting techniques which suggest using an improved technique for custom fabrication of ocular impression tray to obtain a better-fitting custom-made ocular prosthesis. The current article describes rehabilitation of ocular defect of patient who has suffered from trauma and undergone enucleation and describes the various steps involved in fabrication of ocular prosthesis using stock eye. It is characterized according to the contra-lateral eye and gives proper cosmetic results than the stock eye shells. The current case report discusses fabrication of an ocular prosthesis which is custom made and is hollow to reduce weight.