Glomus tumor of the eyelid and anterior orbit

Abstract

A roundish slightly mobile mass was found in the superior left eyelid of a 44-yearold man with a two year history of recurrent eyelid edema and frontal headache. Contact B-scan showed an uncompressible roundish eyelid mass extending to the anterior upper nasal orbit with sponge-like internal texture. On standardized A-scan the lesion showed medium to low internal reflectivity with a regular heterogeneous structure and defined borders: no spontaneous vertical movements of the echo spikes were detectable. CT scan evidenced a high density lesion enhanced by contrast. Echo-guided fine needle aspiration twice failed to obtain adequate material. For diagnostic and cosmetic purposes the mass was excised. Histological evaluation evidenced vascular spaces and roundish glomus cells, as confirmed by immunohistochemistry. To our knowledge this is the first pathological echographic correlation of a glomus tumor.