CYSTIC LESIONS OF THE ORBIT

Background/aims: Cystic lesions of the orbit constitute a group of les ions with diverse clinical findings, histopathologic features and path ogenesis. Methods: We reviewed the histopathologic and clinical record s on 128 orbital cystic lesions diagnosed during a 32-year period from 1963 to 1995. Results: Of the 128 orbital cystic lesions, dermoid cys ts were the most frequent (38 cases, 29.7%). The other lesions, in dec reasing order of frequency, were hydatid cysts (33 cases, 25.8%), muco celes (31 cases, 24.2%), pyoceles (10 cases, 7.8%), meningoencephaloce les (9 cases, 7.0%), epidermal inclusion cysts (4 cases, 3.1%), hemato celes (2 cases, 1.6%) and teratoma (one case, 0.8%). Conclusions: Our review showed that 64.1% of patients with cystic lesions were aged 18 years or less. With the exception of mucopyoceles, all the other cysti c lesions were more frequent in pediatric patients. Cystic lesions beh aved clinically as benign lesions. At a mean follow-up of 6.7 years we did not observe development of malignancy in any of the cystic tumor cases though variable degrees of vision loss developed due to factors such as optic nerve compression, ocular damage and amblyopia.