Lateral Orbitotomy - what to expect?

Hi,

My mom is scheduled to have a lateral orbitotomy to remove a cavernous hemangioma behind one of her eyes. Seeing how there is not much information from the real patients on the internet, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your experiences with me (regardless of whether you yourself had it done or if it was your relative/friend). I used the search feature here, but did not come across too many posts.

Specifically, I'd like to know how risky is this surgery? What was your recovery process like? Were you prescribed steroids or only antibiotics and painkillers? What kind of tumor did you have removed and how big was it?

Also, a question for the medical experts here - does this type of procedure become more risky the longer the patient waits? My mom's tumor is already fairly large (31mm in its largest dimension) and caused her eye to protrude forward. Also, her vision in that eye is already quite poor. If she were to decide to wait and see if the tumor grows even more and suppose in the worst case scenario lose vision in that eye as well as possibly have the eye protrude so much that the eyelid would have a difficulty closing, would it be too late to do this same surgery then?

Thank you very much in advance!

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

Unfotunately, I have no experince in this area.  These tumor are very rare so it is hard to generalize.  Please speak to surgeon and ask him how many of these type of cases he has done.

Dr. O