Conjunctival rhinosporidiosis

Conjunctival rhinosporidiosis is usually a surprise diagnosis in histological section of an excised conjunctival mass. The condition is rarely encountered outside the endemic coastal areas of South India. Accurate diagnosis of this rare condition is infrequent in clinical practice; tumour, neoplasm, papilloma being the common misdiagnoses. Herein, a report of a case of an 18-year-old otherwise healthy male who attended outpatient department of Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Medical College, Kolkata with a red fleshy papillomatous growth about 7 mm x 4 mm in size, in the palpebral conjunctiva just behind the intermarginal strip of his right upper lid. His routine blood examination was within normal limits. The growth was excised under local anaesthesia and histopathological examination revealed rhinosporidiosis. There was no recurrence of the growth within one month of follow-up.