Conjunctival nevi: clinical features and natural course in 410 consecutive patients

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the clinical features of a conjunctival nevus and to evaluate the lesion for changes in color and size over time.

Design: Retrospective, observational, noncomparative case series.

Participants: Four hundred ten consecutive patients with conjunctival nevi.

Main outcome measures: The 2 main outcome measures were changes in tumor color and size.

Results: Of the 410 patients, 365 (about 89%) were white, 23 (about 6%) were African American, 8 (2%) were Asian, 8 (2%) were Indian, and 6 (1%) were Hispanic. The iris color was brown in 55% (229/418), blue in 20% (85/418), green in 20% (83/418), and not indicated in 5% (21/418). The nevus was brown in 65%, tan in 19%, and completely nonpigmented in 16%. The anatomical location of the nevus was the bulbar conjunctiva (302 eyes, 72%), caruncle (61 eyes, 15%), plica semilunaris (44 eyes, 11%), fornix (6 eyes, 1%), tarsus (3 eyes, 1%), and cornea (2 eyes, <1%). The bulbar conjunctival lesions most commonly abutted the corneoscleral limbus. The nevus quadrant was temporal (190 eyes, 46%), nasal (184 eyes, 44%), superior (23 eyes, 6%), and inferior (21 eyes, 5%). Additional features included intralesional cysts (65%), feeder vessels (33%), and visible intrinsic vessels (38%). Cysts were clinically detected in 70% of histopathologically confirmed compound nevi, 58% of the subepithelial nevi, 40% of the junctional nevi, and 0% of the blue nevi. Of the 149 patients who returned for periodic observation for a mean of 11 years, the lesion color gradually became darker in 5% (7 patients), lighter in 8% (12 patients), and was stable in 87% (130 patients). The lesion size was larger in 7% (10 patients), appeared smaller in 1% (1 patient), and was stable in 92% (137 patients). There were 3 patients who developed malignant melanoma from a preexisting compound nevus (2 cases) or blue nevus (1 case) over a mean interval of 7 years.

Conclusions: Conjunctival nevus is a benign tumor most often located at the nasal or temporal limbus and rarely in the fornix, tarsus, or cornea. Over time, a change in tumor color was detected in 13% (20/149) and a change in tumor size was detected in 8% (12/149).