[Diseases of the Lacrimal Gland].

Tear gland diseases are comparatively rare in daily ophthalmological practice. The aim of this article is on the one hand to present the necessary basic knowledge and on the other hand to draw a bow to important current publications on the subject in order to provide the reader with sufficient knowledge for daily practice after reading it.Inflammatory (acute and chronic specific dacryoadenitis, idiopathic dacryoadenitis), neoplastic (epithelial and nonepithelial) and structural (cysts etc.) are presented.Diagnostically, the importance of (open) biopsy has increased again in recent years. Only the pleomorphic adenoma of the lacrimal gland has to be removed in-toto in order to avoid a recurrence or malignant degeneration which is difficult to control curatively. Differential diagnostic aids are explained in detail.