title: Acute bilateral blindness as a presenting symptom of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
abstract: NHL usually presents with lymphadenopathy or symptoms related to compression by the primary tumor of surrounding structures. While the head and neck region is a common site of involvement, blindness is rarely a presenting symptom. We report here the case of a child who presented to the emergency room with acute bilateral loss of vision and no other symptoms. Cranial imaging studies revealed a solid mass of the skull base with compression on optic nerves. Diagnosis of Burkitt's lymphoma was confirmed after biopsy. The patient had partial vision improvement two days after optic nerve decompression which was done immediately at the night of presentation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, McGill University, Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Nader
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Emami
authors.forename: Sam J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Daniel
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019299:Decompression, Surgical; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed