Tonic pupil is usually an idiopathic condition. In some cases, the cause of the ciliary ganglion lesion leading to tonic pupils is obvious. Rarely ischemia causes a lesion of the ciliary ganglion or the short ciliary nerves due to the good blood supply of the ciliary ganglion. Only two cases of tonic pupils in the course of giant cell arteritis are mentioned in the literature, but tonic pupils are probably much more common with this disease. Five cases are demonstrated here. All had associated ischemic optic neuropathy, and stagnation of the blood flow in the supratrochlear artery could be demonstrated in two cases by Doppler sonography. Tonic pupils may also occur when an oclusion of the internal carotid artery resolves, probably because of transient stasis of the orbital blood flow. In another case, tonic pupils were associated with choroidal ischemia (proved by video fluorescent angiography) of unknown origin. The diagnosis of tonic pupils was made by pharmacological testing for cholinergic hypersensitivity with 0.1% pilocarpine.