Bilateral Painful Ophthalmoplegia: A Case of Assumed Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome

Abstract

We present the case of a man of 47 years with vertical and horizontal paresis of view combined with periorbital pain that developed initially on the right side but extended after 3-4 days to the left. Gadolinum uptaking tissue in the cavernous sinus was shown by MRI of the orbital region in the T1 spin echo sequence with fat saturation (SEfs) with a slice thickness of 2 mm. As no other abnormalities were found and the pain resolved within 72 hours of treatment with cortison a bilateral Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome (THS) was assumed. THS is an uncommon cause for Painful Ophthalmoglegia (PO) and only few cases of bilateral appearance have been reported. Even though the diagnostic criteria for THS oblige unilateral symptoms we suggest that in patients with bilateral PO THS should not be excluded as a differential diagnosis. Further more when using MRI to detect granulomatous tissue in the orbital region the chosen sequence should be T1 SEfs and slice thickness should possibly be as low as 2 mm, as granulomas are often no larger than 1-2 mm.

Keywords

• brain-mri
• cavernous sinus granuloma
• cranial nerve paralysis
• headache
• ophthalmoplegia dolorosa