Pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia mimicking ocular surface squamous neoplasia following cultivated limbal epithelium transplantation

Abstract

A 12-year-old girl with total limbal stem cell deficiency in the right eye following chemical burns underwent autologous cultivated limbal epithelium transplantation from the healthy left eye. Postoperatively at 6weeks a mass at the limbus was noted, which increased in size and involved infero-nasal limbus extending over 5mm on bulbar conjunctiva. It was a gelatinous, placoid freely movable mass with irregular surface, multiple intralesional cysts without feeder vessels or intrinsic vascularization and stained brilliantly with rose bengal. Histopathology following excision biopsy showed hyperplastic epithelium with stratified columnar cells and goblet cells. At the last follow-up, 6 months following cultivated limbal epithelium transplantation the ocular surface was stable without any recurrence of the lesion. We herein report a rare complication of epithelial hyperplasia presenting as leukoplakia following cultivated limbal epithelium transplantation mimicking ocular surface squamous neoplasia. © 2006 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.