BACKGROUND: Orbital exenteration is a rare, but disfiguring procedure reserved for the treatment of locally invasive @entity5 or potentially life threatening @entity16801 , when less destructive techniques are inadequate. The authors report their experience and analyses of 64 cases of orbital exenteration performed over a 13 year period, looking specifically at key factors affecting mortality associated with such a destructive surgical procedure. METHODS: Records were reviewed retrospectively of all @entity1 who had undergone exenteration of the orbit from 1 January 1991 to 1 April 2004 inclusive, at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. In all cases of deceased individuals, the cause of @entity204 was determined by liaison with the general practitioner and local health authority. Duplicate @entity204 certificates were requested for all deceased @entity1 from the Registrar for Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Southport, UK. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate survival following exenteration. RESULTS: Overall, 1 year survival post-exenteration was high at 93%. After 3 years this had fallen to 67%, followed by 57% after 5 years, and 37% at 10 years. 13 @entity1 died as a direct result of the @entity5 . A further nine died of unrelated medical conditions, and two @entity1 succumbed to malignant processes originating elsewhere in the body. There was no difference in survival rate at 3 years (p=0.99) and 5 years (p=0.454) between those with clear resection margins and those without. CONCLUSION: In this study it was found that there was an overall mortality rate of 38% over 12 years. The presence of clear surgical margins, although reassuring for the surgeon, should not be regarded as an indication of cure. However, an overall 1 year survival of 93% and a 10 year survival of 37% are reassuring in that a proportion of individuals achieve surgical cure following exenteration. 38% of @entity1 died as a result of other medical causes over the 12 year follow up.

Mortality following exenteration for XXXX of the orbit.

@entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['malignancy', 'orbital tumour'] @entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity204 :: ('MESH:D003643', 'Disease') :: ['death'] @entity16801 :: ('MESH:D009918', 'Disease') :: ['orbital neoplasms']
@entity5 :: (MESH:D009369,Disease) :: ['malignant tumours']
