December 2017 Vol. 5 No.12

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Case Report

Conjunctival Melanoma in a Patient of Dark Race

Ali Hendi Alghamdi

Senior Consultant Ophthalmologist, ASS. Professor, Head of Surgery Department, and Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Albaha University, Saudi Arabia.

E-mail: abohani2020@hotmail.com

Accepted November 29, 2017

Abstract

Conjunctival melanoma is a somewhat rare condition, relative to choroidal melanoma and just about 500 times less often than cutaneous melanoma. Data obtained from several reports revealed that the more incidence of conjunctival melanoma is among white population with rare reports among others. Our case is 65-year-old black race, presented with deep brownish to blackish separated areas in his left eye of four-year duration that increased in size during the last two months as the patient noticed. Hence, our presenting case is of great importance and its significance comes from both its occurrence in a dark race patient which is very rare relative to that of white race and also, its development on top benign looking melanocytic lesion. Ultrasonographic biomicroscopy (UBM) was performed which revealed that the thickness of tumor is 1.4 mm, and confirmed the sclera origin of the tumor and not from an extrascleral extension of a ciliary body melanoma. Histopathology revealed malignant conjunctival melanoma associated with primary melanosis with atypia. No metastatic deposits were present as revealed from results obtained from multiple investigation tools as histopathological examination of lymph nodes, bone scan, and computed tomography of the head, neck, chest, and abdomen. Surgical removal of the tumor, with applying cryotherapy to the normal-appearing conjunctiva surrounding the lesion was performed followed by adjuvant treatment in the form of chemotherapy and topical mitomycin. After the two-year of follow-up, the patient has no evidence of recurrence which was evident from the regular periodic investigations hat reflected on good general condition of our patient.

Keywords: Conjunctiva, Melanoma, Ocular tumor, Dark race