Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome: A Rare Cause of Painful Ophthalmoplegia

Mada Hamwi^1, , Sufyan Abdul Mujeeb², Christopher Kang² and Abdallah Hamdallah³

¹Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Downer’s Grove, USA

²Department of Internal Medicine, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, USA

³Department of Neurology, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, USA

Cite this paper

Mada Hamwi, Sufyan Abdul Mujeeb, Christopher Kang and Abdallah Hamdallah. Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome: A Rare Cause of Painful Ophthalmoplegia. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2021; 9(9):479-481. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-9-9-9

Abstract

Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (THS) is a rare inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology with an incidence of one case per million each year. The syndrome is characterized by painful diplopia due to cranial nerve III, IV, or VI palsy. No specific risk factors have been reported, however, in some cases it has been associated with a recent upper respiratory tract infection. THS usually responds well to steroids and they remain the mainstay of treatment. Here, we report a case of a young Hispanic male with no previous health conditions presenting with ophthalmoplegia and retro-orbital pain. After excluding other etiologies of his presentation, a final diagnosis of THS was made. He initially responded well to a course of high-dose steroids, however, he later developed recurrent symptoms and worsening Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings for which he needed an extended course of steroids.

Keywords

tolosa-hunt, ophthalmoplegia, diplopia, steroids

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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