<i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i> infection of the optic nerve with mycotic arteritis of cerebral vessels

Abstract

A 56-year-old Caucasian male, with no obvious immune deficit or systemic disease, presented with unilateral loss of vision due to A. fumigatus infection involving the right optic nerve. There was no proptosis. Despite fungal chemotherapy he developed central nervous system involvement with mycotic arteritis of the branches of the right middle cerebral artery, temporal lobe infarction and rupture of a mycotic aneurysm of the right internal carotid artery, and died. Review of the literature concerning orbital Aspergillus infection showed both this form of presentation and a rapidly fatal course to be unusual.