Article Text
Summary
71-year-old woman with progressive left-sided, monocular diplopia and ptosis. Her symptoms mimicked ocular myasthenia, but she had an indirect carotid cavernous fistula (CCF). She was diagnosed with monocular myasthenia gravis (negative acetylcholinesterase antibody) after a positive ice test and started on Mestinon and underwent a thymectomy complicated by a brachial plexus injury. Months later, she developed left-sided proptosis and ocular bruit. She was urgently referred to neuro-interventional surgery and was diagnosed with an indirect high-flow left CCF, which was treated with Onyx liquid and platinum coil embolisation. Mestinon was discontinued. Her ophthalmic symptoms resolved. However, she was left with a residual left arm and hand hemiparesis and dysmetria secondary to a brachial plexus injury. Indirect CCF usually can present with subtle and progressive symptoms leading to delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis. It is important for ophthalmologists to consider this differential in a patient with progressive ocular symptoms.
- ophthalmology
- neuro-opthalmology
- cranial nerves
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Footnotes
Contributors Drafting the article: both authors. Critically revising the article: both authors. Approved the final version of the manuscript on behalf of both authors: SRS. Administrative/technical/material support: LL.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.