recurrent cavernous hemangioma of the orbit secondary to tumor remnants

purpose: to report the clinical, radiological, pathological and therapeutic features of a case of recurrent cavernous hemangioma. case report: a 32 year old lady with progressive decrease of vision in her right eye associated with blepharoptosis was diagnosed to have orbital cavernous hemangioma which was excised. 10 years later she presented with recurrent proptosis and progressive eye deviation. imaging showed the same pathology in the same orbit and repeat excision confirmed a cavernous hemangioma. evaluation of old ct scans showed that the recurrent lesion was a twin tumor and we had only excised one of them in the first operation. conclusion: recurrent cavernous hemangioma may be the result of a small residual tumor which grows gradually and becomes clinically evident after some years. when the mass is large or seems multilobulated, after excision of the main mass a thorough search to find small residual masses seems mandatory.