Intracorneal, granulomatous inflammation

Introduction. We report a patient suffering from lattice corneal dystrophy and with a corneal granuloma 8 months after phototherapeutic keratectomy (P TK). Case report. PTK was performed in a 33-year-old man with hereditary lattice corneal dystrophy. An intracorneal tumor was found in the right eye 8 mont hs after treatment. There was no indication of previous foreign body injury . Detailed clinical examinations yielded no evidence of the cause or nature of the tumor. For this reason an excision was performed. Results. Histological examination revealed a dense inflammatory infiltratio n of the deeper corneal stroma with epithelioid cells, histiocytes, lymphoc ytes, eosinophilic leukocytes, and giant cells of the Touton type. There wa s no indication of a generalized granulomatous inflammation. Conclusion. A monosymptomatic, intracorneal, granulomatous infiltration is very rare and has not previously been described in a case of lattice cornea l dystrophy. This may have been a case of xanthogranuloma or sarcoidosis. S trangely, the granuloma occurred only several months after PTK; nevertheles s, a pathogenetic connection seems unlikely.