The intraorbital course of ophthalmic artery and its relationship with the optic nerve

In this study, we aimed to investigate some features of the ophthalmic artery (OA), which supplies the internalstructures of the orbit. We evaluated the origin, branches and the relationships of the OA with the optic nerveand carried out morphometric analyses.Our study was conducted on 60 human orbits. We evaluated the OA divided into three parts. The first part ofOA usually runs along the infero-lateral aspect of the optic nerve. The second part of the OA passed over theoptic nerve in most of the specimens and under the optic nerve in the other specimens. The third part of theOA ran medial to the optic nerve. Diameter of the OA was 1.45 ± 0.23 mm on the right and 1.42 ± 0.3 mm onthe left. Diameter of the optic nerve was 4.1 ± 0.57 mm on the right and 4.2 ± 0.63 mm on the left. The meanintra-orbital length of the central retinal artery was 8.2 ± 1.6 mm on the right and 8.5 ± 2.03 mm on the left.The topographical relationships of the OA should be clinically important in surgical approaches to the orbit.