Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine if choroidal nevi show photographic evidence of enlargement over prolonged follow-up of 10 or more years.
Methods: :
Review of serial fundus photographs of patients with diagnosis of choroidal nevus that had at least 10 years of follow-up.
Results: :
284 nevi in 278 patients were studied. The mean patient age at initial diagnosis of nevus was 55 years (range, 4-87 years) and 69% were female. Location included macula (18%), macula to equator (75%), and anterior to equator (8%). Mean basal diameter of nevi was 5 mm and mean thickness was 1.5 mm. Overall 31% of nevi showed slight growth over a median follow-up of 13 years (range, 10-33). The median increase in basal diameter was 1 mm (range, 0.2-3) and the median rate of increase in basal diameter was 0.04 mm/year (range, 0.01-0.36). Incidence of growth was 47% in patients 50 years or younger and 24% in older patients. None of the patients with growing nevi received treatment to the nevus and none showed evidence of melanoma metastasis.
Keywords: oncology • tumors • uvea