Isolated orbito-cerebral mucormycosis

Abstract

Rhino-orbito-cerebral mucormycosis is a fatal infection in immunocompromised hosts. Prompt recognition of this clinical condition is essential for early diagnosis to avoid a delay of treatment. The presence of black eschar, usually in the nasal cavity, is the most alerting sign to the diagnosis. We present a patient with extremely fulminant ROCM in which the disease might be acquired via an orbital infection without nasal or paranasal involvement. With black eschars appearing at the bilateral canthi as the first alarm to extensive vascular involvement, the lethal infection rapidly evolved to occlusion of the bilateral ophthalmic arteries and eventually major intracranial arteries.