Eyelid Tumours: A Clinicopathological Study

Purpose: This study was aimed at to determine the frequency of excised eyelid lesions in a patient population treated over a 10-year period.Material and Methods: The data of all excised eyelid lesions with tissue diagnoses from 2000 to 2010 in the pathology department were analyzed.Results: 167 eyelid specimens were examined; 68 (40.7%) obtained from male patients and 99 (59.3%) from female patients. The age range was 87.34 years with a mean age of 35.67±20.72 years. The most frequent excised lesions were papilloma which represented 27.8% (45 cases). Cystic lesions in 34 cases were the second most common and represented 20.4%. These were mostly dermoid cysts in 21 cases (61.8%), occupying the upper temporal region of eyelids in 15 cases. Pigmented epithelial tumors were seen in 26 cases (16%). Out of these cases, compound nevus represented 69.2% (18 cases) and junctional nevus represented 3.8% (one case). Subepithelial nevi were reported in seven cases (26.9%). The premalignant and malignant tumors represented (4.8%,8 cases) with mean age 59.25±11.87 years. These were one case of actinic keratosis, six cases of basal cell carcinoma and one case with sebaceous adenocarcinoma.Conclusion: Benign lesions were the most frequent histologically diagnosed eyelid lesions in Egyptian population. The true malignant lesions were lower than what has been described in many reports.