A 76-year-old woman with progressive right-sided proptosis, blepharoptosis, vision loss, and ophthalmoplegia

Abstract

A 76-year-old woman who had emigrated from Haiti 6 days prior presented emergently at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear for evaluation of slowly progressive right-sided proptosis and blepharoptosis, vision loss, and ophthalmoplegia, as well as seizurelike activity over a 2-year period. Early that morning, the patient awoke and experienced an episode of shortness of breath and involuntary shaking of her entire body, followed by generalized weakness and no recollection of the event. The patient had no known past medical history or history of trauma. She had never received an eye examination.