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Profile of eye lid lesions over a decade: a histopathological study from a tertiary care center in South India

Background Eyelid lesions are commonly encountered in histopathology practice and encompass a wide variety of non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions. Here we report the histopathological features of eyelid lesions in patients presenting to a tertiary care center in Kerala, South India.

Methods In this retrospective study, a total of 414 eyelid lesions were identified over a period of 10 years (January 2006 - December 2015). In each case, details including age, gender and final histopathological diagnosis were recorded from histopathology registers.

Results Non-neoplastic lesions (52.4%) were more common than neoplastic lesions (47.6%). In the neoplastic lesions, benign tumors outnumbered (37.7%) malignant tumors (9.9%). Age of patients ranged from 1 to 90 years with a mean age of 43.4 years. M: F ratio was 1:1.3. The most common non-neoplastic lesion was epidermal cyst (14.3%) followed by parasitic granuloma (9.2%), chalazion and dermoid cyst (5.6% each). Nevus was the commonest benign eyelid tumor (13.7%) followed by squamous papilloma (9.2%), seborrhoeic keratosis and capillary hemangioma (3.9% each). Sebaceous carcinoma was the most frequent malignant tumor (2.4%) followed by squamous cell carcinoma (2.2%) and basal cell carcinoma (1.5%). Uncommon lesions encountered were actinomycosis, tuberculous granuloma, amyloid deposit, calcinosis cutis, molluscum, angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia, xanthelasma, granular cell tumor, benign fibrous histiocytoma, mucinous eccrine adenocarcinoma etc.

Conclusions Eyelid lesions were commoner in females and in 5th and 6th decades. Epidermal cyst and nevus were the commonest benign lesions and sebaceous carcinoma was the most common malignant tumor. The results are comparable with available data from South India.