The orbital plate of the frontal bone (orbital roof) is the thin horizontal plate of the frontal bone forming the roof of the orbit and the floor of the anterior cranial fossa. It contains the lacrimal fossa medially for the lacrimal gland and is traversed by the supraorbital and supratrochlear neurovascular bundles at its anterior margin. Frontally located air cells may invaginate it.
The orbital plate is very thin, making it susceptible to upward blowout fractures from elevated intraocular pressure. Intracranial pathology (meningioma, anterior cranial fossa tumours) erodes the orbital plate and invades the orbit. Frontal sinus mucoceles expand into the orbital plate, producing proptosis or downward globe displacement. In orbital surgery, the roof is the boundary between the orbit and the anterior cranial fossa; breaching it causes CSF leak and intracranial exposure.
High-energy blunt orbital trauma may fracture the thin orbital roof upward into the frontal lobe, producing pulsatile proptosis from pneumocephalus or cerebral herniation through the defect, superior rectus entrapment, and CSF orbital fistula, requiring neurosurgical and orbital joint management.
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