Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia of the eyelid and orbit: the Western cousin of Kimura's disease?

Abstract

Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia (ALHE) is an uncommon disease most frequently occurring in the head and neck region. It occurs in all races. In spite of a clear distinction between ALHE and Kimura's disease on histological grounds for almost 20 years now, confusion and misdiagnosis still exist to date. Three Spanish patients presented to our institution over a 6 year period with mass lesions in the superior orbit, medial orbito-nasal wall and eyelid, respectively. All patients were of Caucasian extraction and were diagnosed with epithelioid haemangioma on histological tissue analysis. We report on the history and management of these patients which resulted in good functional and cosmetic outcome with no subsequent evidence of disease recurrence.