What is an Orbital Fracture?

As we all have heard by now, Derrick Rose has been injured again. This time , it was an elbow to the face. Anyone that has played sports, especially basketball, has at some point taken a shot to the face. The pain never gets any easier, especially with something like an elbow to the eye. With Derrick Rose's unfortunate event, he even had to to get surgery in order to repair his eye.  So what exactly is an orbital fracture? What occurs within the eye? How can it be repaired?

Orbital Fracture

Orbital Fractures are seen as trauma to the eye. Depending on the severity of the eye, there can be three types of fractures: trap-door fractures, Medial blow-out fractures (mid-level fracture), and Lateral blow-out fractures(high-level fracture). According to templehealth.org,  symptoms can include swelling of the eye, double vision,   In addition to the orbital fracture , the orbital rims may also become injured.

Healing/Treatments

When it comes to healing, the biggest goal of healing an orbital injury is to prevent the eye from having permanent long term vision loss. Vision loss is one of the scarier things that can occur. That is one of the first things that enter's one's mind after initially getting hit. There are a few methods that are used in healing orbital fractures. Medical and surgical therapy are two of the more popular treatments used.

During medical treatments, steroids such as prednisone are used to treat orbital fractures medically. The prednisone aids in decreasing the amount of fluids that occur with swelling within the eye.
Surgical therapy are used for a few reasons: anatomic reduction, fixation of lost bone, and soft tissue adjustment.

For Derrick Rose, he will have to not participate in any activity for at least two weeks. This is great considered the damage that could have been done, especially receiving  an elbow from the size of NBA players.