Painful phantom eye

ABSTRACT

During a period of one year and three months, I examined a total of 56 patients with empty orbits to assess the incidence of painful phantom eye after the loss of a globe, and to study the effectiveness of appropriate preoperative explanation and early postoperative fitting of an ocular prosthesis in the prophylaxis and treatment of this unusual and vexing condition. The patient were divided into two groups Group 1 included 44 patients who had their eyeballs removed elsewhere, and Group 2 comprised of 12 patients who underwent enucleation or evisceration our institution. Our patients had surgery for panophthalmitis, nine patients; crushed globe, one patient; retinoblastoma, one patient; and expulsive hemorrhage, one patient. Nine of these patients had evisceration and three had enucleation. Two out of 44 patients in Group 1 had symptoms of a painful phantom eye and responded well to proper fitting of a prosthesis and reassurance. None of the patients in Group 2 developed painful phantom eye, placing the overall rate of occurrence of a phantom eye at 3.6% in patients with a surgical loss of the globe. [Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology 1077-78, October, 1994.]