Steroid-responsive painful ophthalmoplegia: Tolosa-Hunt syndrome, Eales disease, or both?

INTRODUCTION: Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (THS) is one of the most common 'benign' causes of painful ophthalmoplegia. Diagnosis is based on clinical and imaging findings and the exclusion of other causes because there is no specific biomarker for the syndrome. Eales disease, an idiopathic inflammatory venous disease that primarily affects the eye, can also affect the central (as stroke or myelitis) and peripheral nervous system.

CASE REPORT: We report the case of a 32-year-old woman with a subacute left ophthalmoplegia and evidence of a gadolinium-enhanced lesion suggesting an inflammatory granuloma that resolved within 48 hours after treatment with steroids. A diagnosis of THS was considered at this time. On a follow-up ophthalmological examination, a diagnosis of Eales disease with involvement of the left eye was made. The patient was treated successfully.

CONCLUSION: Eales disease could be a cause of painful ophthalmoplegia and may mimic THS. Long-term follow-up of patients diagnosed with THS may be necessary to exclude other diagnoses.