[Benign hair-follicle derived eyelids tumors in adults]

Benign eyelid neoplasms derived from hair follicles are frequently misdiagnosed, including pilomatricoma, trichoepithelioma, trichilemmoma, trichoblastoma and inverted follicular keratosis.

We reviewed 17 tumors seen in the last 9 years, between 1992 and 2002. Excisional biopsy constituted the treatment in all cases.

The mean age was 44.5 years (range 13-80 years). Ten were women and 7 men. Pilomatricoma and trichoepithelioma accounted for 76.5% of all neoplasms. All trichoepitheliomas were found as solitary tumors and no patient had a history of familial trichoepithelioma. The remaining neoplasms (23.5%) were trichilemmomas, trichoblastoma and inverted follicular keratosis. No patient recurred locally and there were no malignant transformations after a mean follow-up of 3.1 years. The most frequent hair follicle neoplasms in our series was pilomatricoma (9 cases).

Benign hair follicle neoplasms are rare in the eyelid. Most can simulate a basal cell carcinoma when evaluation is based on clinical evidence alone, and only the pilomatricoma may resemble a benign neoplasm. Thereby they must be excised with free surgical margins. All excised eyelid lesions should be sumitted for histopathologic examination because it is not possible to obtain 100% accuracy in diagnosing eyelid tumors.