PERIORBITAL DIROFILARIASIS

A differential diagnosis of inflammatory periocular soft tissue masses includes sarcoidosis, ruptured dermoid cyst, infectious abscess, meta static neoplastic disease, and idiopathic pseudotumor. The authors pre sent the case of a 42-year-old woman with a periocular inflammatory ma ss caused by dirofilaria of a nematode classification as Dirofilaria t enuis. The extraction of the worm was curative and the patient has bee n symptom-free for the ensuing 12 months. This zoonotic infection, spr ead by mosquito vectors from animal hosts to humans, is rarely encount ered in the United States as a cause of periorbital inflammation. A hi story of migratory swelling and residence in, or travel to, endemic ar eas (the southeastern United States) should suggest the possibility of Dirofilaria infection.