The Historical Evolution of Orbital Decompression

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The earliest account of orbital decompression was published in 1888.Since then, various approaches have been reported throughout the years -transcutaneous, transnasal, transcranial, transantral, transconjunctival, transcaruncular, temporal fossa, swinging eyelid, ab interno, and ab externo.The current trend for orbital decompression includes four surgical techniques: 1) Deep lateral orbital decompression with or without medial orbital wall decompression (balanced decompression); 2) Orbital fat decompression; 3) Deep lateral orbital decompression via transtemporal fossa approach; and 4) Endoscopic medial orbital wall decompression with or without orbital floor decompression.The choice of surgical procedure may differ in every case, depending on the severity of proptosis and the surgeon's preference or skill.With the advancements in technology, orbital decompression is continuously transforming.Nonetheless, the main goal has always been to achieve a more effective decompression for disfiguring proptosis and compressive optic neuropathy.