Objective: To study the clinicopathologic characteristics of eyelid and eyebrow pilomatrixoma.
Methods: It was a retrospective case series study. The clinical and pathological characteristics of 64 cases of eyelid pilomatrixoma who were treated in Tianjin Eye Hospital or Tianjin Gongan Hospital from May 2003 to October 2012 were reviewed and analysed.
Results: In 64 cases, 21 cases were male(32.8%), 43 were female( 67.2%). The age at the time of diagnosis ranged from 1 to 66 years, 27 cases(42.1%) were before age 10 years, 13 cases(20.3%) were before age 20 years, 11 cases(17.2%) were before age 30 years, 13 cases were beyond age 30 years. The tumors were more frequent in children and younger patients, mainly involved the eyebrow and upper lid, 42 cases (65.6%) were eyebrow, 18 cases (28.1%) were upper lid, 3 cases (4.7%) were lower lid, and 1 case was inner canthus, no prominently differences between right and left eyes were showed. The clinical features mainly presented with a slowly growing asymptomatic solid mass attached to the skin, which were frequently a round nodule, clearly demarcated and more hard, with skin overlying the lesion was normal or presented some reddish or bluish discoloration. The history of the most cases were several months to one year. The greatest diameter of tumors ranged from 4 mm to 16 mm besides one case was 3.2 cm. The tumors were consisted of darkly staining basaloid cells and shadow cells, which most cases associated with polynuclear giant cell reaction and chronic inflammation. There were 24 cases(37.5%) showed varying degrees of calcification and 6 cases showed ossification, one case was presented an epidermoid cyst in the tumor and one case associated with a pilomatrixoma on homolateral upper extremity skin.
Conclusions: Pilomatrixoma is a benign neoplasm which is mainly consisted of basaloid cells and shadow cells, usually combined with inflammation, foreign body giant cells, calcification and ossification.If a child or young patient has a firm subcutaneous mass in the upper eyelid or eyebrow area, a pilomatrixoma should be suspected.