ROLE OF COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF ORBITAL PATHOLOGIES

Introduction: Pathologies that arise from orbital structures are common indications for the radiological evaluation of the orbit. Clinical symptoms are useful pointers to the likely pathology. CT is the rst-line imaging modality for radiological evaluation of the orbit in the acute setting. CT plays a central role in the diagnosis and management of orbital fractures. CT orbit is an excellent imaging tool for assessing patients with orbital trauma, malignancies, suspected congenital malformations, and in a variety of clinical settings. A total of 70 patients presenting Materials and Methods: with orbital complaints who underwent CT scans for orbital pathologies were included in this study and evaluated with a Siemens 128-slice CT machine in our institute with the permission of the institutional ethical committee and the consent of the patient. A male preponderance Results: was reported in our study, correlating well with studies by other investigators. The most affected age group was 31- 40 years, with a frequency of 15 (21.43%). The maximum number of cases were traumatic, 29 (41.43%), followed by 20(28.57%) infective/inammatory cases and 12 (17.14%) neoplastic cases, which were predominantly unilateral. Congenital and developmental conditions accounted for 4 (5.71%) cases. Vascular cases were 3 (4.29%), and miscellaneous cases were 2(2.86%). Out of these, 52 (74.29%) patients had unilateral involvement while 18 (25.71%) patients had bilateral involvement. In this study, CT showed a diagnostic accuracy of 86.21 % in orbital trauma, 85 % in orbital infective/inammatory lesions and 83.33 % in orbital neoplastic lesions. CT is Conclusion: the rst investigation of choice for orbital pathologies in emergency settings. It is a rapid, noninvasive and reliable diagnostic tool for the evaluation of orbital pathologies. CT is excellent at identifying and characterization of orbital lesions in traumatic, inammatory, congenital and neoplastic pathologies of the orbit, which helps the clinician to make a rapid decision regarding further management, prognosis & follow-up.