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Intraocular schwannoma: case series of 28 patients and literature review

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Abstract

Purpose

Intraocular schwannoma is a rare tumour, which is often misdiagnosed. We presented the demographics and clinical characteristics of patients with intraocular schwannoma.

Methods

Retrospective case series were collected between May 2005 and July 2021 in Beijing Tongren Hospital.

Results

A total of 28 patients were diagnosed with intraocular schwannoma on histopathological examination of surgical specimen. The median age was 39 years (range: 12–64). Fourteen patients were female and 14 were male. Among the all subjects, 21/28 patients (75.0%) presented as visual loss, and 3/28 patients (10.7%) had visual field loss. Intraocular schwannoma presented as nonpigmented mass in the ciliary body in 12/28 cases (42.9%), in the choroid in 9/28 cases (32.1%), and in ciliochoroid in 7/28 cases (25.0%). Intraocular schwannoma was often clinically misdiagnosed as uveal melanoma, which occurred in 16/28 patients (57.1%). Tumour excision with pars plana vitrectomy was performed for all included patients. Endoresection with lens removal was performed for tumours in the choroid, while transscleral resection was performed for tumours located in ciliary body or ciliochoroid. Increased light transmission was detected in 12/28 cases (42.9%). In the consecutive follow-up (median: 73 months, range: 7–193 months), no cases of recurrence or metastatic disease were detected.

Conclusions

Intraocular schwannoma is a rare benign tumour. It usually presents as nonpigmented mass, which can easily be misdiagnosed as nonpigmented uveal melanoma.

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Fig. 1: Anterior segment imaging of intraocular schwannoma.
Fig. 2: Ultra-widefield fundus image of Case 24.
Fig. 3: Histopathological examination of Case 28.

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Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study is accessible to the correspondence authors by proper reasons.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank those who participated in this study. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82220108017, 82141128); The Capital Health Research and Development of Special (2020-1-2052); Science & Technology Project of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Z201100005520045, Z181100001818003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing Key Laboratory of Intraocular Tumor Diagnosis and Treatment, Beijing Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Key Lab, Medical Artificial Intelligence Research and Verification Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    Li Dong, Xiao-Lin Xu, He-Yan Li, Qiong Yang, Rui-Heng Zhang, Wen-Bin Wei & Yue-Ming Liu

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  1. Li Dong
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Contributions

WBW, YML and LD designed the study, YML, LD and HYL wrote the manuscript. RHZ, XLX, and QY collected the data and conducted the analyses, WBW and YML edited and revised the manuscript. All authors have approved the submitted version and agreed with the contribution declarations.

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Correspondence to Wen-Bin Wei or Yue-Ming Liu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Approval of this study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the institute. Written informed consents were obtained from all patients.

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Dong, L., Xu, XL., Li, HY. et al. Intraocular schwannoma: case series of 28 patients and literature review. Eye 38, 1314–1319 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02890-5

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