Necrotic malignant melanomas of the choroid and ciliary body. A clinicopathological and statistical study.

In a review of 474 malignant melanomas of the posterior uvea the incidence of totally necrotic tumors was 3.6% and of partially necrotic, 5.7%. Longer time intervals to appearance of first symptoms and enucleation, secondary glaucoma, and inflammatory exophthalmos were significantly more frequent in necrotic malignant melanomas (P less than 0.01). Histopathological examination also revealed that necrotic tumors more often had secondary angle-closure glaucoma, rubeosis iridis, cellular inflammatory infiltrates, and extraocular extension when compared to non-necrotic tumors (P less than 0.01).