ORBITO-OCULAR TUMORS IN A TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN LAGOS

Abstract

Aim: A 10 year retrospective review of the orbito-ocular tumor cases presenting at the tertiary 
hospital with focus on their clinical patterns and their site, age and sex distribution.
Methodology: This study is a retrospective review of the clinical notes of patients with orbitoocular tumors that presented between 2010 and 2019. Bio-data, clinical presentation, laterality, 
duration, clinical diagnosis were extracted. Surgical interventions and histopathology 
confirmation, where available, were also recorded. Orbito-ocular tumors were classified 
according to anatomical site. Data obtained were analysed using the Statistical Package for 
Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.
Results: A total of 91 cases were recruited with 51 (56%) males and 40(44%) females. The 
intraocular, orbital, conjunctival, and eye lid tumours accounted for 65(71.4%), 10(11.0%), 
8(8.8%) and 8(8.8%) cases respectively. The ages ranged from 9 days to 68 years with a mean 
age of 8.15 ± 14.54 years. 75(82.4%) of all orbito-ocular tumours were seen in children of ages 
16 years and below. Squamous cell carcinoma was the commonest orbito-ocular tumor 4(25%), 
followed by papilloma 3(18.8%) occurring in adults. The leading malignancy in children was 
Retinoblastoma in 64(85.3%), followed by dermoid cyst 4(5.3%). Two third 54(59.3%) presented 
within 6 months of onset. More subjects, 40(44.0%) presented with uniocular Right eye tumor 
while 39(42.8%) presented with uniocular Left eye tumor and 12(13.2%) presented with 
bilateral tumors. Leucocoria (44%), mass (27.5%) and proptosis (17.6%) were the commonest 
presenting complaints. About three-quarter (76.9%) of the reviewed cases had surgical 
intervention. Most of the clinical diagnoses (80.8%) correlated with the histopathology findings.
Conclusion: Retinoblastoma remains the commonest orbito-ocular tumor in childhood while 
squamous cell carcinoma the commonest in adults. Although our study revealed early 
presentations of most cases, some proportions of patients still decline surgical interventions. 
This study also observed that clinical diagnosis at presentation highly correlates with 
subsequent histological diagnosis. There is still need for counselling and continuous education 
of patients and their relatives on early presentation and treatment acceptance.