Clinical and pathological characteristics of basal cell eyelid carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: Describe the clinical and pathological characteristics of basal cell carcinoma.

 Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted of a case series from the Oculoplastic Surgery Service at Ramón Pando Ferrer Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology from January 2016 to December 2018. The study universe was all the patients with a postoperative histopathological diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma in the period analyzed, from whom a sample 54 patients was selected. The variables analyzed were year of diagnosis, age, sex, skin color, place of residence, degree of cell differentiation, eyelid affected, eyelid location, preoperative diagnosis and postsurgical histopathological diagnosis.

Results: Of the patients studied, 57.4% were female. The most affected age group was 60-79 years with 53.7% of the cases and a mean presentation age of 54.57 years. 88.9% of the sample had white skin. The lower eyelid was affected in 79.6% and the inner third in 64.8%. 64.8% were poorly differentiated basal cell carcinomas, whereas agreement between clinical and histopathological diagnosis was 85.2%.

Conclusions: Basal cell carcinoma is more common in the female sex, elderly people and white skin patients. In terms of degree of cell differentiation, it is poorly differentiated, and its main location is the inner third of the lower eyelid. In most patients there is agreement between the clinical and histopathological diagnosis.

Key words: Basal cell carcinoma; skin cancer; eyelid tumors.