Isolated, benign, intraorbital schwannoma arising from the supraorbital nerve. Case report and review of the literature.

The authors describe the rare case of a 65-year-old man, with absent clinical evidence of von Recklinghausen's disease, harbouring an isolated, benign schwannoma of the right supraorbital nerve. The patient presented a progressive, painless proptosis of the eye for the past 2 years, did not complain of any intra- or periorbital pain, and did not experience any form of visual disturbance or field defect. The lesion was completely resected using a fronto-orbitozygomatic approach. The clinicopathological, radiological and surgical features are discussed, and the literature on supraorbital nerve schwannomas reviewed. To the authors' knowledge the fronto-orbitozygomatic approach has not been previously reported for the removal of supraorbital nerve tumors.