245
CASE DESCRIPTION
An 85-year-old male presented to the emergency room
with a history of drooping of his left upper eyelid of
2 weeks of evolution. This was associated to severe
left fronto-temporal pain. His past ocular history was
notable for glaucoma and age-related macular degen-
eration. On exam his best corrected visual acuity was
20/200 OD and 20/400 OS by Rosenbaum near chart.
He had complete ptosis of his left eye with no levator
function and complete ophthalmoplegia of the left
eye with a negative forced duction test. His corneal
sensation was intact. No proptosis was found. The
left pupil was corectopic due to cataract surgery and
measured 4 mm without reaction to light. No reverse
relative afferent pupillary defect was noted. Both
optics were pale with cup to disk ratio of 0.7 OD and
0.6 OS. A macular scar was present in the right eye,
and there was geographic atrophy in the left eye. An
MRI showed an expansile lesion in the left sphenoid
sinus extending to the ethmoidal sinus and under-
neath the sella to the medial wall of the cavernous
sinus. There was no evidence of orbital involvement
(Figure 1). Endoscopic biopsy of the lesion showed a
cellular tumor composed of uniform small cells with
round nuclei and scanty cytoplasm. There was an
abundant fbrovascular stroma, separating the tumor
cells in clusters. Immunohistochemical studies were
positive for synaptophysin. These fndings were con-
sistent with an olfactory neuroblastoma (Figure 2).
Seminars in Ophthalmology, 24(6), 245–246, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Informa UK Ltd
ISSN: 0882-0538 print/ 1744-5205 online
DOI: 10.3109/08820530903388587
Esthesioneuroblastoma Presenting with
Complete External Ophthalmoplegia
Sheila M. García-Santana
1
, Julio A. Rodríguez
2
, Luis Serrano
2
, and Thomas R. Hedges III
3
1
University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
3
Department of Ophthalmology, Tufts University Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
ABSTRACT
An 85-year-old male presented with unilateral third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerve palsies.
Neuroimaging revealed a mass involving the medial wall of the left cavernous sinus, without orbital
involvement. Biopsy of the mass provided a pathologic diagnosis of esthesioneuroblastoma.
KEYWORDS: esthesioneuroblastoma, cavernous sinus, ophthalmoplegia, ptosis
Correspondence: Julio A. Rodríguez, Department of Ophthal-
mology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan,
Puerto Rico. E-mail: jarodz75@gmail.com
FIGURE 1 Magnetic resonance imaging, coronal view.
Lesion in the left sphenoid sinus that extended to the
ethmoid sinus, and underneath the sella to the medial wall
of the cavernous sinus. There was no evidence of orbital
involvement.