Oculoplastics

Excised redundant, forniceal "conjunctival" tissue from a 67-year-old man who experienced a chemical injury to his OS 25 years earlier was evaluated histopathologically with the hematoxylin-eosin, periodic acid Schiff (PAS) with and without diastase, mucicarmine, and Alcian blue methods. Additional immunoperoxidase testing for gross cystic disease fluid protein-15 (GCDFP-15) was undertaken. Non-keratinizing squamous epithelium composed of 8 to 10 layers of swollen keratinocytes without goblet cells surmounted a variably dense and well-vascularized collagenized lamina propria deep to which, in submucosal fibroadipose tissue, was embedded an accessory gland. The acini of the gland were composed of both GCDFP-15-positive serous cells and mucicarmine-positive goblet cells, indicating they were seromucinous rather than entirely serous, as is characteristic of normal lacrimal glandular tissue. Different features of the surface epithelium, the lamina propria, and the submucosa can separate the conjunctival and oral mucous membranes. A close analysis of the cytologic composition of associated accessory glands can reinforce the correct diagnosis of an oral mucous membrane graft when the past surgical history is unclear, because only serous cells but not mucocytes comprise the lacrimal glandular units.

Over a year, a 51-year-old man developed a mass in the anteromedial orbit in the region of the lacrimal sac that caused epiphora. Imaging studies disclosed no bone destruction. On biopsy, a sclerotic lesion was discovered populated by hyperchromatic cells that had been apparently distorted by crush artifact, indicative of fragile cells. The lesion simulated a sclerosing inflammatory process or a desmoplastic metastatic carcinoma. CD20 revealed that the background cells were large neoplastic B-lymphocytes. A systemic workup uncovered widespread skeletal disease. The patient is undergoing R-CHOP chemotherapy with a relatively favorable prognosis due to negative testing for MYC.

PURPOSE: To describe the patterns of the melanocytic populations of 3 cases of lacrimal sac benign melanosis and 1 of atypical primary-acquired sac melanosis with a melanomatous nodule secondary to spread of atypical conjunctival primary-acquired melanosis to the sac. METHODS: Clinical records, photographs, and paraffin sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin and the Fontana reaction were critically reviewed. Additional sections were immunoreacted for melanoma antigen recognized by T cells and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor. Five nonpigmented pterygia and 4 nonpigmented lacrimal sacs served as controls. RESULTS: Three patients with obstructive dacryocystitis and benign melanosis were African-Americans whose sacs disclosed the presence of nonclustering, melanoma antigen recognized by T cells, and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor-positive intraepithelial dendritic melanocytes at all levels of the epithelium. The transferred melanin granules were concentrated in the adlumenal apical region of the epithelial cells. No fusiform melanocytes were found in the lamina propria. The fourth patient, a Caucasian, had atypical conjunctival and sac primary-acquired melanosis and conjunctival and sac melanomas. The intraepithelial sac melanocytes in this case were strikingly atypical and profusely distributed in a back to back fashion at all levels of a thickened epithelial layer focally approximating the appearance of a melanoma in situ. Five nonpigmented pterygia and 4 nonpigmented lacrimal sacs served as controls. Each displayed nonnesting dendritic melanocytes of various densities without back to back contact. CONCLUSION: Low densities of intraepithelial melanocytes were discovered in all controls and therefore represent a normal subpopulation within the conjunctival and lacrimal sacs. Due to the pseudostratification of the sac epithelium, melanocytes can move to higher levels without implying atypia. Benign melanosis is produced by small diffusely distributed individual intraepithelial melanocytes, whereas primary-acquired melanosis with atypia exhibits back to back, dense proliferations of large atypical melanocytes.

Importance: Medulloepithelioma is the second most common primary neuroepithelial tumor of the eye. The full range of its morphologic expressions and appearances in metastases have not been fully explored. Observations: A patient in her 50s with glaucoma for decades had undergone multiple filtering surgical procedures, including the placement of a glaucoma drainage device. A paraspinal mass was discovered, and tumor and bone marrow biopsies disclosed rhabdomyosarcoma. This led to the discovery of a multicystic intraocular tumor. A metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma to the eye was considered unlikely because, to our knowledge, this event had never been reported. An enucleation was performed, and an intraocular tumor composed almost entirely of rhabdomyoblasts (desmin- and myogenin-positive) was discovered along with rare clusters of persistent neuroepithelial cells. Conclusions and Relevance: To our knowledge, this is the first case of a medulloepithelioma in which teratoid rhabdomyoblasts effaced all but trace amounts of neuroepithelium and generated a distant metastasis entirely composed of rhabdomyoblasts. The prolonged history and filtering procedures probably led to these 2 phenomena.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze overlaps between pregnancy and orbital inflammation (OI). DESIGN: Retrospective observational case series. METHODS: Eight new cases from 1997 to 2015 and 2 previously published cases were identified for inclusion in this investigation to provide the fullest clinical picture. Medical records, imaging studies, and the results of biopsies were reviewed. RESULTS: Three categories of association were discovered: (1) OI arising for the first time during pregnancy (5 cases); (2) OI arising within 3 months of delivery (2 cases); and (3) previously diagnosed OI reactivated or exacerbated by pregnancy (3 cases). One patient had a preexistent systemic autoimmune disease and another's was later diagnosed. One patient had attacks during sequential pregnancies. Findings included eyelid swelling and erythema, conjunctival chemosis, pain on eye movement, minimal diplopia, the usual absence of proptosis, and general preservation of visual acuity. Imaging studies disclosed extraocular muscle swelling (8 cases), most frequently of a single lateral rectus muscle. There were 2 cases of dacryoadenitis; 1 of these and an additional case displayed inflammation of the retrobulbar fat. Corticosteroids effected resolution of most symptoms. Singleton births were normal with the exceptions of an intrauterine fetal demise owing to acrania and a molar pregnancy. CONCLUSION: OI usually affects a single rectus muscle (typically the lateral) and, less often, the lacrimal gland and is often mild when it arises during or after pregnancy. Independent systemic autoimmune disease is an uncommon feature. Corticosteroids were efficacious except in 1 case with severe orbital scarring. No definitive causal relationships between pregnancy and OI could be established based on the clinical data.

Lipogranulomas of the periocular tissues with fulminant fibrotic and lymphohistiocytic responses were initially described in cases of exogenous paraffin or petrolatum jelly injections ("paraffinomas"). A 49-year-old Cambodian woman slowly developed bilateral pseudoptosis with intact levator function and redundant, taut upper eyelid skin. At surgery, vesiculations or "bubbles" in the preaponeurotic fat were encountered and were demonstrated histopathologically to be empty locules surrounded by a thin collagenous lamina. Outside these extracellular spaces were CD68/CD163-positive mononucleated and univacuolated histiocytes simulating damaged fat cells or neoplastic lipoblasts in hematoxylin and eosin sections. Giant cells and chronic sclerosing inflammation were absent. The patient denied any previous injections. The bland character of the lipogranulomas in comparison with that of other injectable agents, the absence of any residual particles associated with other cosmetic fillers, and the distinctive histiocytic response of lipoblast-like cells that were sufficiently characteristic to compel the diagnosis of surreptitious silicone injections. Other conditions were excluded based on comparative clinicopathologic criteria.