Purpose: To examine the incidence of benign and malignant eyelid lesions and conjunctival tumors.
Subjects and methods: One-hundred-and twenty-eight cases (131 eyes) which were treated during the period from January 1990 to February 2004 were histopathologically diagnosed for eyelid or conjunctival tumors (87 cases of eyelid tumors and 41 cases of conjunctival tumors) in retrospective evaluations. The incidence of benign or malignant lesions, the pathological classification, age, sex, and clinical diagnostic accuracy were all investigated.
Results: Sixty-four (73%) of the tumors were found to be benign eyelid tumors. The common benign eyelid tumors were 14 nevocellular nevi, 9 seborrheic keratosis, 7 epidermoid cysts, and 6 papillomas. Twenty-four (27%) eyelid tumors were malignant. These included 9 basal cell carcinomas, 9 sebaceous gland carcinomas, 4 malignant lymphomas, and 2 metastatic tumors. Thirty-four (79%) conjunctival tumors were benign, and the common benign conjunctival tumors were 9 nevocellular nevi and 7 papillomas. Nine (21%) conjunctival tumors were malignant, comprising 7 malignant lymphomas and 2 squamous cell carcinomas. The mean ages of malignant eyelid and conjunctival tumor patients were significantly older than those of benign tumor patients. Clinical accuracy in predicting basal cell carcinoma and sebaceous gland carcinoma was 11.1% and 44.4%, respectively.
Conclusions: Approximately 70 approximately 80% of all eyelid and conjunctival tumors are benign. Clinicians should suspect that the lesions are malignant when seeing elderly patients with eyelid or conjunctival tumors. Excised eyelid lesions should be submitted for histopathologic confirmation because there are some cases where clinical diagnosis does not match pathological diagnosis.