[Actinic keratosis of the conjunctiva. Apropos of a clinical case].

We report a slowly progressive and whitish limbal conjunctival tumor that occurred in a 73-year-old man. An excisional biopsy specimen of this conjunctival tumor was submitted for histopathologic evaluation. The diagnosis of conjunctival actinic keratosis was based on following cellular abnormalities: epithelial hyperplasia acanthosis, keratosis or parakeratosis with discrete papillomatosis and some atypia. The basement membrane was intact. An area of elastotic degeneration in the subtantia propria, was considered as one of the characteristic features of this conjunctival precancerous condition related to excessive sun exposure. By hybridization in situ, the detection of human papilloma virus (HPV) was negative. Keratosis actinic needs to be distinguished from other precancerous conditions showing similar clinical features such as dysplasia and carcinoma in situ appearing to affect the prognosis.