PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical signs of inflammatory reaction in the fixation of an orbitary implant (magnet, covered by gold), and to evaluate the macroscopic resistance to organic fluids of the used implants. METHODS: An experimental study was performed in 54 adult female rabbits, divided into 3 groups of eighteen with 3 subgroups of 6 according to the material used for fixation; the implants were evaluated at weeks 1, 3 and 6 after surgery. An implant (magnet, covered by gold) was fixed in the inferior edge of the orbit using glue, a screw or nonabsorbable suture (Mersilene 5.0®). The opposite orbits (without implants) represented the control group. Measurement of tangential traction of fixed implant displacement. RESULTS: Clinical signs of inflammatory reaction due to orbitary fixation of the implant were observed, with glue (cyanoacrylate), screw or nonabsorbable suture (Mersilene 5.0®), until six weeks after surgery, the reaction being more severe in group F (suture). The implants showed resistance to organic fluids in 90.7% of the cases. The tangential traction force of 80 gf showed better results in the groups where screw and unabsorbable suture were used, in the fixation group with glue two implants did not resist to that tangential force. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical signs of inflammatory reaction of the implant and its fixation were observed up to the sixth week after surgery, with cyanoacrylate, screw, or nonabsorbable suture (Mersilene 5,0®), being more intense in the latter group. The traction force of 80 gf, regardless of the type of fixation, did not produce any displacement in 94.5% of the implants in the first week, 100% in the third week and in 94,5% of the cases in the sixth week. There was no resistance of the implants to organic fluids in 9.3% (damaged implant).
Magnetics; Gold; Nystagmus pathologic; Rabbits; Female
