COMBINED INTRACRANIAL AND ORBITAL OPERATION FOR RETINOBLASTOMA

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe a new surgical approach for the treatment of retinoblastoma (glioma of the retina). The results of enucleation of the eye in treatment of this tumor have been discouraging. An analysis of various series reported in the literature is shown in the accompanying rate table. The average survival rate even for short follow-up periods is only 18 per cent. If the reports of Hirschberg and Wintersteiner¹are discounted as perhaps not in accord with the results of modern surgical technic, the statistics are somewhat less discouraging (a cure in 50 per cent of cases), although the most recent report of all is the least favorable (35 per cent of cures). What is widely recognized as true but often minimized in the discussion of retinoblastoma is the tendency of the tumor to invade the optic nerve early and to extend backward within the