Aplastic anemia presenting as spontaneous orbital hemorrhage

We report a case of a 51-year-old female presenting with a three-day history of a painful swollen right eye associated with loss of vision. She presented with no light perception in the affected eye, periocular ecchymosis, hemorrhagic chemosis, and an axial proptosis. CT scan revealed a unilateral proptosis with tension on the optic nerve and accompanying diffuse retrobulbar hemorrhage. Bone marrow studies confirmed aplastic anemia. A review of the English literature failed to reveal previous cases of aplastic anemia presenting with spontaneous orbital hemorrhage. We suggest that aplastic anemia be included in the differential diagnosis of a patient presenting with painful spontaneous orbital hemorrhage.