Prevalence and clinicopathologic findings of conjunctival epithelial neoplasia in pterygia.

PURPOSE: To study the prevalence of conjunctival neoplasia in clinically diagnosed pterygia and the clinicopathologic characteristics of conjunctival tissues obtained from pterygium excision.

DESIGN

Prospective, observational case series.

PARTICIPANTS

From February through August 2007, consecutive subjects indicated for pterygium excision were enrolled from an outpatient eye clinic of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand, and from the eye camp at the 6th Station of the Thai Red Cross Society, Aranyaprathet District, Sa Kaeo, Thailand. A total of 498 eyes from 482 subjects were studied. The mean age of the subjects was 56.5 ± 11.7 years. The male-to-female ratio was 3:7.

METHODS

Clinical data were gathered, including age, sex, occupation, family history, and medical history. Pterygia were clinically graded as mild, intermediate, or fleshy. Tissues from surgical fields were fixed in formalin and processed using standard pathology laboratory methods.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Histopathologic results were examined in a masked fashion by 3 pathologists.

RESULTS

Ninety-one percent of tissue was from primary pterygia. Most lesions were classified as intermediate grade (45.2%). Histopathologic results showed that 4 eyes had conjunctival intraepithelial neoplasia. Two eyes had minimal cellular atypia at the conjunctival epithelium. Two eyes had complex choristoma. For the subjects who had conjunctival epithelial neoplasia, the mean age was 57.0 ± 8.0 years, 44.4% were male, and none had a history of carcinoma in other organs or any history of herpes virus, human papilloma virus, or human immunodeficiency virus infections.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of conjunctival epithelial neoplasia in clinically diagnosed pterygia is approximately 1.8%. Because the clinical characteristics of subjects who have conjunctival epithelial neoplasia apparently did not differ from those without, tissue pathologic examination may be required to diagnose the condition.