Conjunctiva: keratoacanthoma

Eye
Conjunctiva
Keratoacanthoma

Author: Deepali Jain, M.D.

Topic Completed: 1 October 2014

Minor changes: 1 October 2019

Copyright: 2004-2019, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed Search: Keratoacanthoma conjunctiva

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Table of Contents

Cite this page: Jain D. Conjunctiva: keratoacanthoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/eyekeratoacanthoma.html. Accessed June 7th, 2020.

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