Radiological Analysis of Orbital Cavernous Hemangiomas: A Review and Comparison Between Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Cavernous hemangiomas are the most common benign orbital tumors in the orbit, but radiological differentiation from other solitary orbital masses can still be challenging at times. While there have been previous studies describing the radiological characteristics of cavernous hemangiomas on computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), there have not been any studies comparing the 2 imaging modalities. The purpose of our study was to evaluate CT and MRI findings of orbital cavernous hemangiomas and compare both modalities.We performed a cross-sectional study of patients with a histopathological diagnosis of cavernous hemangioma over a 20-year period from January 1997 to December 2016 in a single tertiary institution.Our study included 77 patients; mean age was 46.6 ± 11.2 years, and females comprised 68.8%. The lateral orbit (23.4%) was the most common location. The masses were well-defined, with 55.8% being ovoid, 27.3% round, and 16.9% lobulated. The most common enhancement pattern on CT was a small point starting in the periphery, progressing to heterogeneous filling in the late phase. The most common enhancement pattern on MRI was multiple patchy starting points, widespread across the tumor, with a final homogeneous filling in the late phase.Significant differences between CT and MRI were found in terms of area, location, and number of starting points of contrast enhancement in the early phase. We also found that the use of MRI is limited in differentiating fast-filling cavernous hemangiomas from other orbital tumors and in such cases, contrast-enhanced CT would be helpful.