We report the intentional occlusion of the middle meningeal artery arising from the lacrimal artery, a novel technique to improve drug delivery in a 14-month-old boy with a history of right sporadic unilateral cavitary retinoblastoma group D. The patient was referred to our institution for intra-arterial chemotherapy after two systemic chemotherapy treatments. The digital subtraction angiography showed a large middle meningeal artery arising from the right lacrimal artery and decrease choroidal enhancement thus decreased flow to the tumor. The ophthalmological examination after the first intra-arterial chemotherapy observed no tumor regression. Assuming a vascular steal, in the second intra-arterial chemotherapy session, the origin of the middle meningeal artery was occluded. Following this treatment, a significant response was observed at ophthalmological follow up. In the presented case, the efficacy of intra-arterial chemotherapy was improved after occlusion of a meningeal branch arising from the lacrimal artery, which was responsible for the vascular steal.
Keywords: Intra-arterial chemotherapy; ophthalmic artery; retinoblastoma.