title: Permanent axial length change as a result of cavernous hemangioma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the visual and physical effects created by a cavernous hemangioma in the orbit of the eye, covering a period of 17 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 35-year-old white male reported a small blurry spot in the superior visual field of one eye. This had no obvious cause, but eventually after 9 years, the eye was obviously proptotic, and a cavernous hemangioma measuring 36 mm in the longest dimension was removed from the orbit. A retrospective evaluation of spectacle prescriptions found that the refractive error had reduced by 2 D over that time period. The refraction did not undergo any clinically meaningful change after tumor removal, or over the next 8 years. A postoperative measurement of axial lengths found that the eye compressed by the tumor was nearly 1 mm shorter than the fellow eye.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A cavernous hemangioma in the orbit apparently shortened the axial length of the eye over a period of several years, causing a gradual difference in refraction compared with the fellow eye. The axial length did not change after tumor removal.
authors.affiliation: Alcon, Surgical Intraocular Device Research, Fort Worth, Texas 76134, USA. mike.simpson@alconlabs.com
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Alford
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D058452:Axial Length, Eye / Q000473:pathology*; D005094:Exophthalmos / Q000209:etiology; D006392:Hemangioma, Cavernous / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013508:Ophthalmologic Surgical Procedures; D009918:Orbital Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011184:Postoperative Period; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000209:etiology