Retrospective Analysis of Incidence Rates of Benign and Malignant Eyelid Lesions at a San Francisco Bay Area Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to describe the incidence and epidemiology of primary eyelid lesions diagnosed in an academic medical center in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2016-2019. We performed a retrospective review of eyelid pathology cases to better understand the incidence of pathology.

Methods : A retrospective review of 881 primary eyelid lesions at Stanford Medical Center from between January 2016 and August 2019 was performed. All 881 lesions were histopathologically verified and used for analysis. The histopathological diagnosis of benign and malignant eyelid lesions was stratified based on age and gender.

Results : The mean age of patients treated for an eyelid lesion was 57.84 years. Of the eyelid lesions, 26% were malignant and 74% were benign. The most common eyelid malignancy was basal cell carcinoma (52%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (25%), melanoma (6.0%), and sebaceous cell carcinoma (6.0%). Of all the malignant eyelid lesions, all but lymphoma (33% were more commonly found in males than females: basal cell carcinoma (56%), squamous cell carcinoma (60%), melanoma (64%), sebaceous cell carcinoma (57%). In both males and females, malignancy incidence was slightly higher in patients younger than 70 years old (53%). The most common benign lesions were intradermal nevus (15%), followed by seborrheic keratosis (14%), inclusion cyst (9.0%), and hidrocystoma and acrochordon (each with 7.0%).

Conclusions : Benign lesions are significantly more common than malignant lesions. Similar to other studies, the most frequent malignant lesions are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and sebaceous carcinomas. Malignancy was more common in males (33% of all males) compared to females (21% of all females). Of the malignant lesions, all the subtypes of malignancies excluding lymphoma were more commonly found in males than females.

This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.