ldiopathic orbital myositis

Abstract

Idiopathic orbital myositis is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology, whose knowledge has been increasing with the new neuroimaging technics. lt should always be an exclusion diag­ nosis. The authors describe a case of a 69 year­ old male patient, with right periorbital pain and diplopia of sudden onset, and one week later loss of homolateral visual acuity. Neurological exa­mination showed, on the right, an almost total loss of vision, ophtalmoplegia, proptosis and hypal­gesia in the territory of the first division of the Vth cranial nerve. The CT scan findings and the response to corticosteroids therapy are highli­ghted because of its major importance in the diagnosis of this disease.