Papanicolaou cytology in the diagnosis and management of external ocular tumors
H. Gelender and R. K. Forster
Papanicolaou smear cytology is a simple diagnostic procedure for the
evaluation and management of external ocular lesions. A variety of benign
and neoplastic lesions are examined for correlation of clinical, cytologic,
and histologic impressions. Accurate correlation in 38 of 41 eyes
substantiates the reliability of Papanicolaou smear cytology to
differentiate benign from neoplastic ocular lesions. Cytology proved useful
in the preoperative evaluation of squamous cell carcinoma and related
tumors of the conjunctiva, and malignant melanoma of the conjunctiva.
Cytology also was valuable in the detection of tumor recurrence in squamous
cell carcinoma and carcinoma-in-situ of the conjunctiva, and in Meibomian
gland carcinoma of the eyelid. The accessibility of ocular tumors makes
them particularly well suited for cytologic examination.
