Orbital myxoma: ultrasonographic diagnosis

Summary

Orbital myxoma is a benign tumor, extremely rare. It virtually does not occur in children and adolescents. From the ultrasonographic standpoint, these tumors have been studied little due to their extreme rarity.

We present one case of orbital myxoma in a child, with the ultrasonographic findings. It is important to notice that the tumor in this girl began when she was 7 years old, the youngest age reported.

Myxoma is a benign tumor formed by stellate and sometimes spindle cells set in a myxoid stroma which contains mucopolysaccharid. Henderson [7] reports that probably myxoma originates in remnants of primitive or embryonic mucinous tissue which neither undergoes adult differentiation nor merges with other types of connective tissue specializing in support. A myxoma is usually found in the heart or jaws [2, 5, 6, 8]. It is a tumor of adult life which virtually does not occur in children and adolescents.

Myxoma of the orbit are extremely rare. Blegvad’s survey [1] (1913–1944) collected four orbital myxomas. Interestingly, the four cases were in women of 40, 29, 29, and 25 years of age, respectively.

Dutz and Stout [3] in a review of world-wide literature report 27 myxomas in children, the majority of which originating from superficial lax tissue, callings to our attention the existence of only one case of orbital myxoma in a thirteen year old child which was published by Lamb [9]. This case is considered in the Dutz review as a curiosity.

No cases of myxoma were reported during the period of Henderson’s survey [7] (1948–1966).

From the ultrasonographic standpoint [10, 11], these tumors have been studied little due to their extreme rarity.

The knowledge of this entity is particularly important because this lesion which is cured by local removal may be easily confused with sarcoma and specially with botryoide type rhabdomyosarcoma.

It is the reason of this paper to present one case of recurrent orbital myxoma in a 12 year old girl and demonstrate the ultrasonographic findings