Orbital Surgical Guidelines: Pediatric Considerations

Pediatric orbital and skull base surgery comprises a wide array of tumors. An understanding of the location of the lesion, nature of the disease, and surrounding anatomy is paramount to surgical planning in these small spaces. The goals of pediatric skull base surgery are to avoid injury to the surrounding structures, minimize cosmetic deformities, and remove some or all of the tumors based on anticipated pathology and biologic cost of removal. Safe surgery on many of these tumors requires an understanding of the location of the lesion relative to the optic nerve or orbit. This is particularly challenging because the dimensions of the orbital confines change continuously as one navigates from rostral to caudal. Management of these tumors may require a multidisciplinary approach including orbital surgery, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, oral maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, and interventional neuroradiology.