Dermoid and Epidermoid Tumors of the Orbit

DERMOID and epidermoid tumors of the orbit are uncommon if the paraorbital growths or those located superficially in the eyelids are excluded. Of a series of 200 consecutive cases of exophthalmos reported in 1941 by one of us (R. L. P.),1instances of these congenital growths comprised 4 per cent. Constans2in 1943 collected from the literature 15 cases of cholesteatoma of the orbit and reported another; he stated that most of the tumors in his series should more correctly have been termed dermoids. Birch-Hirschfeld3in 1930 found 5 cases in the records of the Leipzig clinic. Samuels4in 1936, before this society, reported the histologic study of 13 dermoid cysts but failed to differentiate orbital from paraorbital growths. Many reports of isolated cases of oil, or dermoid. cysts affecting the orbit are to be found throughout the older and the more recent literature. When intraorbital