Auditing outcomes after treatment of Scottish patients with uveal melanomain Liverpool

Uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular malignant tumour, alt hough it is a rare condition. Between January 1993 and December 1997 a tota l of 120 patients were referred from Scotland to the Ocular Oncology Servic e at St, Paul's Eye Unit in Liverpool, Of these, 98 had uveal melanoma, whi ch was treated with primary enucleation (24), or by conservative methods, c onsisting of plaque radiotherapy (30), proton beam radiotherapy (19), trans -scleral local resection (19), or endoresection (6), After conservative tre atment, 92% of eyes were retained, with 65% of eyes maintaining the same le vel of vision as at presentation or better. The main complications were ret inal detachment (8), death from metastatic disease (7) and local tumour rec urrence (4). This study gives an overview of the treatment of uveal melanom a and demonstrates that most patients with uveal melanoma can be treated co nservatively, with the large majority retaining the eye and good vision.