RELAPSING POLYCHONDRITIS, ANOTHER CAUSE FOR A SALMON PATCH

We present the case of a patient with long-standing relapsing polychon dritis and first, an orbital mass and, then, a ''salmon patch'' conjun ctival mass. The histologic pathologic findings were similar on both o ccasions, showing an inflammatory process with reactive lymphoid hyper plasia. In both situations, the masses responded to a short course of systemic corticosteroids. Although ocular inflammatory changes from re lapsing polychondritis have been well described, to our knowledge, the re have been no previous reports of conjunctival changes in the form o f a salmon patch lesion, as described here. Relapsing polychondritis m ay be added to the differential diagnosis of a conjunctival salmon pat ch lesion.