Solitary eosinophilic granuloma of the lateral orbital wall.

Two children (aged 18 and 23 months at the initial examinations) were each ultimately found at surgery to have a solitary eosinophilic granuloma of the lateral orbital wall. Both patients had a symptomatic period of six weeks during which time other diagnoses were considered: bacterial preseptal cellulitis and mumps dacryoadenitis in the first case and traumatic recurrent orbital hematoma in the second. Diagnostic difficulties stemmed from confusing features in their histories, as well as the location of the lesion and the deceptively minimal swelling relative to the actual size of the lesion. Follow-up ten and 18 months after curettage of the two lesions showed no recurrence or evidence of systemic involvement. Although most reported cases describe the orbital frontal bone as the site of origin in the orbit, our cases demonstrated that unifocal eosinophilic granuloma may occur in the lateral wall of the orbit.