Hippokratia 2002, 6(3):105-110
F. Karasavvidou, CH. Karkavelas, E. Panousi, N. Georgiadis, D. Mikropoulos, K. Papadimitriou
Abstract
We report a case of Kaposi’s sarcoma of the bulbar conjunctiva in a 70 years old man. The patient was HIV negative and had not any other disease of the immune system.The lesion appeared as a pedunculated, nodular mass on the left bulbar conjunctiva. The patient had a history of cataract operation on the same eye one year ago.Surgical excision and pathological examination was performed.Microscopically it was composed of spindle cells with no pleomorphism or high mitotic activity. The spindle cells formed slits containing extravasated red blood cells and were CD34 and Ulex Europeaus positive.Kaposi’s sarcoma is a spindle cell malignancy of endothelial cell origin. It is a frequent tumor in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and in immunosuppressive patients.Ocular involvement is rare and usually is a part of a multicentric disease in AIDS population.