Eye
Conjunctiva
Epithelial tumors
Keratoacanthoma-conjunctiva
Author: Deepali Jain, M.D.
Topic Completed: 1 October 2014
Minor changes: 24 December 2020
Copyright: 2004-2021, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Keratoacanthoma conjunctiva
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Case reports | Treatment | Clinical images | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Differential diagnosisCite this page: Jain D. Keratoacanthoma-conjunctiva. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/eyekeratoacanthoma.html. Accessed December 7th, 2021.
Definition / general
- Uncommon, rapidly growing, squamous cell proliferation of sun exposed bulbar conjunctiva
- Grows for weeks, then regresses or stays unchanged
Case reports
- 17 year old girl with xeroderma pigmentosum (Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2005;71:430)
- 34 year old woman with rapidly growing conjunctival mass (Rev Hosp Clin Fac Med Sao Paulo 2004;59:135)
- 39 year old Japanese man with hyperemia of bulbar conjunctiva (Arch Ophthalmol 2003;121:118)
Treatment
- Excision; may need cryotherapy of margins due to possibility of malignant diagnosis; only rarely recurs
Clinical images
Images hosted on other servers:
White, dome shaped mass
1.2 cm lesion at nasal bulbar conjunctiva
Mobile conjunctival mass
Gross description
- Crater like
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Lobules of proliferating squamous epithelium, often mitotic figures
- Deep edges are well circumscribed and regular appearing
- Epithelial cells are glassy with vesicular nuclei and prominent eosinophilic nucleoli
- No / rare parakeratosis
- Often acute and chronic inflammatory cells which extend into adjacent epithelium
Microscopic (histologic) images
Images hosted on other servers:
Central crater containing keratotic plug
Differential diagnosis
- Pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia
- Squamous cell carcinoma: infiltrative margins, often cannot be definitively excluded
