Periorbital and Orbital Infections

Practitioners frequently have the opportunity to manage the child for whom the chief complaint is a swollen eye. Some children have trivial or self-limited disorders, but others can have sight- or life-threatening problems. Noninfectious causes of the swollen eye include blunt trauma, tumor, local edema, and allergy. Infectious causes can be preseptal or orbital in origin. The differential diagnosis and management of these conditions are considered in this article.