Localized infection by Serratia marcescens simulating a conjunctival neoplasm.

PURPOSE: To report a Serratia marcescens infection that clinically simulated a conjunctival neoplasm.

METHOD: Case report.

RESULTS

A healthy 80-year-old man without contact lenses presented with a pink-yellow conjunctival mass that resembled a solid neoplasm. Stains and cultures of material that exuded from the mass during surgery revealed S. marcescens. Histopathology disclosed an epithelial-lined cyst with macrophages containing S. marcescens.

CONCLUSION

Although S. marcescens usually affects the eye as a keratoconjunctivitis in patients with contact lenses, it can also present as a mass simulating a neoplasm in a patient who does not wear contact lenses.