An 80-year-old male with diabetes mellitus, mild diabetic retinopathy, and mild dementia underwent reported uncomplicated, bilateral FESS for chronic sinusitis with polyposis at an outside hospital. He was provided an outpatient prescription for amoxicillin-clavulanic acid upon outpatient surgical discharge. Initial pathology specimen within the immediate postoperative period from the outside hospital was reported as non-invasive Aspergillus. He was seen by his original surgeon at the outside facility on postoperative day 3 without visual complaints or unexpected facial pain. On postoperative day 4, the patient reported sudden right-sided vision loss and presented to the walk-in ophthalmology clinic at the primary author’s tertiary care facility. An ophthalmology exam found no perception of light on the right and an abducens nerve palsy. Pupils were equal and reactive to light bilaterally with no pallor of the optic disc and normal ocular pressures. He was sent immediately to the emergency department for imaging, whereupon the otolaryngology team evaluated the patient. Intranasal exam by otolaryngology was only notable for moderate edema of the nasal mucosa without necrosis or pallor. There was no decreased sensation of the palate or midface. Computed tomography was performed and notable for violation of the lamina papyracea (Figure ). Preoperative imaging from the outside facility was not available for comparison. Magnetic resonance imaging suggested acute ischemic findings of the right optic nerve with diffusion restriction at the proximal optic nerve without evidence of thrombosis or hemorrhage. Subsequent imaging after admission noted an abnormal T2 signal without canalicular segment enhancement. There was, however, some adjacent enhancement extending to involve the optic and nerve sheaths in the orbital apex and superior orbital fissure. The enhancement of the right-sided nerve sheaths was thought to be contributing both to the vision loss and the abducens nerve palsy that was defining the OAS. In addition to those mentioned, the neurosurgery, neurology, and internal medicine teams evaluated the patient. It should be noted that repeated images were obtained at several time points due to poor images from motion artifact that did delay care. The clinical and radiologic findings were determined by the treating teams to be most suggestive of the surgical trauma from the FESS at the outside facility and not of an infectious origin. A non-surgical approach was initially pursued. The patient was provided broad-spectrum antibiotics and high-dose steroids to decrease inflammation with close neurologic monitoring. Re-evaluation by otolaryngology on flexible nasal endoscopy did not show any change in findings of the nasal mucosa.\nOn postoperative day 9 from the original FESS, the patient developed sudden vision loss of the left eye. An ophthalmology exam noted no light perception bilaterally, worsening ophthalmoplegia on the right with decreased supraduction, adduction, and infraduction in addition to the complete abducens palsy. These findings suggested now the involvement of the oculomotor and trochlear nerves. The posterior ocular exam now showed mild optic nerve pallor on the right with good color on the left and no evidence of edema. Repeat computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging noted no new bony destruction; however, there was persistent inflammation of the right optic canal. An emergent multidisciplinary team meeting was held between all consulting specialties and infectious disease was also consulted as the initial diagnosis of traumatic neuropathy was questioned. The patient then underwent emergent FESS with otolaryngology and neurosurgery with decompression of both optic nerves, sphenoidotomy, septectomy, and mucosal stripping (Figure ). The lamina papyracea and bone adjacent to the root of the right orbital apex were dehiscent as had been suggested on imaging (Figure ). Additionally, there was a large amount of absorbable packing in the posterior ethmoid cavity on the right.\nA final culture from the initial FESS at the outside hospital was re-evaluated by the infectious disease team, which revised the diagnosis of Aspergillus to that of S. apiospermum. This pathologic diagnosis was made on postoperative day 10 (postoperative day 1 from emergent FESS). The patient was started on high-dose voriconazole and amphotericin B. The patient continued on maximum medical therapy and continued to worsen clinically and radiologically regarding the infection. Unfortunately, after prolonged hospitalization, he suffered a myocardial infarction and subsequent severe gastrointestinal bleeding. He passed away on postoperative day 47 from the initial FESS after being transferred to inpatient hospice services.
A 69-year-old Japanese woman had a macular oedema in her right eye, which occurred secondary to BRVO and was unresponsive to intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor aflibercept. She was subsequently treated by STTA injection at the referral hospital twice. During the treatments, her eye was anaesthetized with 4% topical lidocaine. A sterilized eyelid speculum was used, and the superior-temporal conjunctiva was incised using sterilized scissors to inject 20 mg of triamcinolone acetonide into the posterior subtenon space. After the injection, the conjunctiva was not sutured because this step is usually unnecessary. These procedures were performed in an outpatient treatment room with wearing sterilized gloves. A 1.5% topical levofloxacin ophthalmic solution was administered four times daily for 3 days post-injection. Four months after the second injection, the patient noted a conjunctival mass that became progressively larger with a little pain and redness. She was then referred to Kindai University with a clinical diagnosis of orbital fat herniation.\nDuring her first visit, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 6/30 in the right eye and 6/6 in the left eye. Intraocular pressure was normal in both eyes. Slit-lamp microscopic examination revealed no inflammation in both the anterior chamber and vitreous. A soft, well-demarcated mass mimicking herniated orbital fat was observed in the super-temporal quadrant, which corresponded to the posterior STTA site (Fig. a). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the orbits revealed a hypo-intensity lesion on T2-weighted imaging at the super-temporal peribulbar area (Fig. b). Her white cell count and C reactive protein levels were normal.\nTo excise the conjunctival mass, first, we made an incision in the conjunctiva, and found that yellowish pus was discharged. The local administration of antibiotics was performed empirically based on the presumed diagnosis of bacterial infection. Although a strain of dematiaceous fungi was isolated from the pus 1 month later, the antifungal drug susceptibility of the strain was not determined at that time. We did not immediately administer antifungal drugs because there were no significant changes in clinical findings initially. The abscess was debrided again 2 months after the surgery through a superior forniceal incision because the orbital abscess at the same lesion had developed gradually. During the second surgery, the wound was irrigated with 0.1% amphotericin B after three large abscesses were removed. Postoperatively, she was treated with 400 mg/day of oral voriconazole because of Fungiflora Y staining of the pus (Fig. a) and the presence of a large amount of fungi by pathological examination of the abscess by Grocott’s staining (Fig. b).\nWe obtained the pathogenic strain from the abscess during the second surgery and observed it macroscopically and microscopically. The colony on potato dextrose agar medium (PDA; Difco, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Sparks, USA) had a diameter of 10 mm 14 days after inoculation and with incubation at 25 °C. The colony appeared as a moist-form pigmented yeast-like colony (Fig. a). The slide culture using lactophenol cotton blue staining revealed cylindrical conidogenous cells producing ellipsoidal conidia (Fig. b). From the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool search using the sequence of the ribosomal RNA gene internal transcribed spacer domain base, the sequence (the accession number LC566592 in the DDBJ) of this strain showed 100% similarity to those of some strains of E. dermatitidis. The isolate was thus identified as E. dermatitidis on the basis of morphology and phylogeny. The pathogenic strain in the current case was deposited at the Medical Mycology Center, Chiba University in Japan, as IFM 65961.\nMinimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of several antifungal drugs and the minimal effective concentration of micafungin against the strain were determined using of the broth dilution method according to M38-A2 of the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (Table ). The inhibitory concentrations of amphotericin B, itraconazole, voriconazole, and miconazole against the pathogenic strain were found to be low. Based on these results, topical and systemic voriconazole were administered for 3 months. The patient’s serum beta-D-glucan levels were normal during the follow-up periods since the first surgery, and no recurrence was observed after the second drainage.