Abstract
Orbital tumors comprise a variety of diseases, although tumors of the peripheral nerves
are rare. Of these, schwannoma is considered the most common entity, consisting histopathologically
almost exclusively of Schwann cells. Another benign tumor containing Schwann
cells is ganglioneuroma. Here, ganglion cells are histopathologically apparent in
addition to the Schwann
cell-containing stroma. Ganglioneuroma belongs to the group of neuroblastic tumors
and can occur anywhere in the pathway of sympathetic ganglion cells. In this report,
we present the disease
courses as well as the findings of two patients with different orbital tumors.
In both cases, the diagnosis was only confirmed by histopathological examination.
The first patient had a
schwannoma with cystic degeneration and the second patient had a ganglioneuroma,
both tumor entities which occur only rarely in the orbit. Commonalities and differences
are discussed.
Key words
schwannoma - ganglioneuroma - orbit - histopathology - cystic - degeneration
