Clinicopathological Features of Benign Eyelid Tumors: A Retrospective Analysis of 101 Cases

PURPOSE: To assess the relative frequency of benign eyelid tumors in basis of clinical and histopathological analysis and to determine the accuracy rate for the clinical diagnosis of benign eyelid tumors. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A retrospective study of patients with the diagnosis of benign eyelid tumors between January 2007 to March 2013 was undertaken. In this study clinical records including demographic data, clinical characteristics of tumors, frequencies of benign eyelid tumors, localization and histopathological analyses of cases who underwent surgical excision were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 106 eyes of 101 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 27.6 +/- 21.6 years. Of these cases, 45.5% were male and 54.5% were female. The right eye was involved in 45.3% and left eye was in 54.7% of the cases. The tumors were located on the lower eyelid in 25.5%, on the upper eyelid in 55.7%, on the medial canthus in 13.2% and on the lateral canthus in 3.8% of the eyes. The mean follow-up was 13.7 +/- 9.7 months. The surgical excision and primary repair was performed in 62.3% of the cases. The distribution of the clinical diagnoses were as follows: nevus(18.9%), dermoid/epidermoid tumor (17.9%), sebaceous cystic tumor (14.2%), capillary hemangioma (11.4%), squamous papilloma (10.4%), moll cyst (5.8%) whereas the most frequent histopathological diagnosis was dermoid/epidermoid tumor (22.7%), nevus (16.7%), sebaceous cystic tumor(12.1%), moll cyst(7.6%), inclusion cyst(6.1%) and seborrheic keratosis (6.1%). The histopathologic diagnoses matched with the clinical diagnoses in 48 eyelids (72.7%). CONCLUSION: Nevi and dermoid/epidermoid tumors were the most common benign tumors of the eyelid. These were followed by sebaceous cystic tumor and capillary hemangiomas. The benign eyelid tumors were more commonly seen in the upper eyelid. Careful clinical examination and histopathologic evaluation are mandatory for a proper management of the benign eyelid tumors.