Overview of Orbital Inflammation/Unmet Needs

Abstract

Diseases of the orbit and periorbital eye tissues manifest in a wide variety of clinical presentations. Space occupying lesions in the orbit include infections, inflammations, vascular malformations, and malignancies. The significant variation in presentations is due to the complex anatomy of the orbit and the heterogeneous nature of the multiple disease processes that present themselves as orbital inflammatory processes. Additionally, although specific disease entities often show similar patterns of orbital tissue involvement, there is still a spectrum of clinical presentations within disease processes, which furthermore overlap with other inflammatory etiologies. This heterogeneity creates a significant challenge in determining specific diagnoses and subsequently instituting timely medical and surgical management of patients with orbital inflammation. Despite advances in imaging, physical examination, and laboratory tests, a biopsy is often needed for diagnosis and to guide treatment. Unfortunately, the biopsy is too often read as non-specific or idiopathic inflammation, a term that gives minimal guidance to the patient or to the clinician. There is clearly a need for developing more specific and sensitive clinical diagnostic testing.