Isolated intraorbital schwannoma arising from the abducens nerve

Abstract

Preoperative diagnosis of benign intraorbital neoplasm was made by means of CT and MR scans; the mass was radically excised through a microsurgical lateral orbitotomy and the pathological examination revealed a schwannoma. Features of orbital schwannoma are described, together with some details concerning the surgical strategy and the history of the evolution of the lateral orbitotomy.

Intraorbital Abducens Nerve Schwannoma

“…Similar to the description by Irace et al (13), in our case, we were able to demonstrate, preoperatively by MRI (Figure 2) and intraoperatively by identifying the area of attachment of the tumor, the origin of the schwannoma from the abducens nerve.…”

“…We summarize the main features by comparing our case with the one described by Irace et al (13) (Table 1).…”

“…Although Housepian et al (12) hypothesized that these schwannomas most frequently originate from the nasociliary nerve, the case presented by Irace et al (13) …”

“…Based on the work of Erdogmus et al (8), Irace et al (13) proposed that the entry point of nerve fibers in the muscle (e.g., area nervosa or myoneural junction) (15) is the zone where intraorbital schwannomas truly arise. Similar to the description by Irace et al (13), in our case, we were able to demonstrate, preoperatively by MRI (Figure 2) and intraoperatively by identifying the area of attachment of the tumor, the origin of the schwannoma from the abducens nerve.…”

“…Literature research has identified only one other abducens nerve schwannomas of the orbit, described by Irace et al (13).…”