The Diagnosis of Orbital Mucoceles and Pyoceles with Standardized Echography

Abstract

Among the periorbital lesions that affect and secondarily invade the orbit, benign mucoceles and pyoceles of the paranasal sinuses play a prominent role. The incidence of these orbital ‘Muco(pyo)celes’ among all orbital tumors ranges between 3% and 10%; they are the cause of unilateral prop-tosis in 3% to 15% of the cases (1–4, 6, 11, 12, 14). Orbital mucoceles usually originate in the frontal and adjacent ethmoidal sinuses; a mucocele rarely invades the orbit from the sphenoidal or maxillary sinuses. Therefore, an orbital mucocele is clinically suspected in a case of unilateral prop-tosis in which the globe is displaced mostly temporally and inferiorly rather than anteriorly, and in which a smoothly outlined mass can be palpated in the superonasal anterior orbit. Diplopia, pain and headaches may occur, and patients with this condition frequently give a typical history of chronic rhinological problems or severe head injury (skull fracture) long before the onset of the displacement of the globe.KeywordsFrontal SinusAneurysmal Bone CystBony DefectOrbital WallOrbital TumorThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.