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Intraorbital and intracranial soft-tissue glomus tumor in an 8-year-old child.

Hankinson TC, Ogden AT, Canoll P, Garvin JH, Kazim M, Bruce JN, Feldstein NA, Anderson RC

1 Departments of Neurosurgery;, 2 Pathology, Division of Neuropathology;, 3 Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology; and, 4 Ophthalmology and Surgery, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York.

check mark Soft-tissue glomus tumors (or glomangiomas) are unrelated to neuroendocrine paragangliomas (glomus tympanicum, jugulare, and vagale). The authors present the first reported case of an orbital soft-tissue glomus tumor in a child. An 8-year-old girl developed rapidly progressive right-eye blindness, proptosis, and a sixth cranial nerve palsy. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a homogeneously enhancing lesion extending from the right orbit through the superior orbital fissure to the cavernous sinus and middle cranial fossa. A biopsy specimen demonstrated the lesion to be a soft-tissue glomus tumor. Following angiography and embolization, a gross-total resection of the tumor was achieved. The patient was treated with adjuvant proton-beam radiotherapy. At 24 months follow-up her proptosis and sixth cranial nerve palsy had resolved and there was no evidence of tumor recurrence.

Published 1 May 2008 in J Neurosurg Pediatrics, 1(5): 389-91.
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