The inferior orbital fissure is a long slit in the floor and lateral wall of the eye socket, lying between the greater wing of the sphenoid above and the maxilla below. It connects the orbit with the pterygopalatine fossa behind and the infratemporal fossa to the side. It carries the infraorbital and zygomatic nerves and veins that link the orbit with the pterygoid venous plexus.
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| Ossification | Formed as the gap remaining between bones that ossify partly in membrane (maxilla, zygomatic) and partly in cartilage (greater wing of sphenoid); its size is established in childhood. |
The inferior orbital fissure is a key landmark in orbital and skull base surgery and in the repair of orbital floor and zygomatic fractures. Its venous connections allow infection to spread between the face, orbit and deep facial spaces. Tumours of the pterygopalatine fossa, such as juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma, may extend through it into the orbit. Fractures involving the orbital floor near the fissure can injure the infraorbital nerve, causing numbness of the cheek and upper lip.
A blow to the eye fractures the thin orbital floor close to the inferior orbital fissure, which may trap orbital tissue and injure the infraorbital nerve, causing double vision and cheek numbness.
Infection or tumour can pass through the fissure between the orbit and the pterygopalatine or infratemporal fossa.
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