[Intracorneal granulomatous inflammation]

We report a patient suffering from lattice corneal dystrophy and with a corneal granuloma 8 months after phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK).

PTK was performed in a 33-year-old man with hereditary lattice corneal dystrophy. An intracorneal tumor was found in the right eye 8 months after treatment. There was no indication of previous foreign body injury. Detailed clinical examinations yielded no evidence of the cause or nature of the tumor. For this reason an excision was performed.

Histological examination revealed a dense inflammatory infiltration of the deeper corneal stroma with epithelioid cells, histiocytes, lymphocytes, eosinophilic leukocytes, and giant cells of the Touton type. There was no indication of a generalized granulomatous inflammation.

A monosymptomatic, intracorneal, granulomatous infiltration is very rare and has not previously been described in a case of lattice corneal dystrophy. This may have been a case of xanthogranuloma or sarcoidosis. Strangely, the granuloma occurred only several months after PTK; nevertheless, a pathogenetic connection seems unlikely.