A study of the histopathologic pattern of orbito-ocular disease in a tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Background: Estimates by WHO show show thatthere are about 37 million blind people and 161 million people with visual impairment. About 90% of these people live in developing countries. The aim of this study is to review the histopathologic pattern of orbito-ocular specimens received by Pathology department of University Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin City Nigeria, over a 10 years period (between January 2002 and December 2011). Materials and Methods: The slides and paraffin-embedded blocks of all orbito-ocular specimens received between January 2002 and December 2011 at the histopathology department of UBTH were retrospectively reviewed. were retrospectively reviewed. The clinical data such as the age, sex, site of lesion and clinical summary were extracted from the histology request forms. Results: Children (less than 15 years of age) accounted for 28.6% (n = 30) of all the specimens seen, while adults accounted for 71.4% (n = 75). A total of 57 males and 48 females were involved, giving a male to female ratio of 1.2:1. The mean age was 31.3 years (range: 1 month-84 years), (range: 1 month-84 years). The common sites of pathologies were the conjunctiva (45.7%, n = 48), intraocular (29.5%, n = 31), eyelid (21.9%, n = 23) and orbit (2.9%, n = 3). Most of the eyelid lesions (45.5%) and conjunctival lesions (43.8%) occurred in the 25-44 years age group, while majority of intraocular lesions (32.3%) occurred in the 1-4 years age group.). Malignant specimens were seen in 31.4% (n = 33) of cases, benign specimens 29.5% (n = 31), inflammatory specimens 21.9% (n = 23), degenerative specimens 10.5% (n = 11) and trauma-related specimens 6.7% (n = 7). Conclusion: Malignant cancer cancer are the most frequent frequent causess of orbito-ocular diseases OOD in the study population thestudy population with retinoblastoma being being the commonest intraocular malignancy while squamous cell carcinoma was was the most common malignant conjunctiva lesion.