The long-term outcome of patients undergoing iridocyclectomy

The authors evaluated the long-term results of iridocyclectomy to remove a lesion of the iris or ciliary body in 52 patients. The mean follow-up time was 8.5 years. The excised lesions were benign in 53% of the cases, spindle cell-type melanomas in 19% of the cases, mixed cell- or epithelioid cell-type melanomas in 25%, and an adenocarcinoma of ciliary epithelium in 2%. Visual outcome was generally good, with 43% of the patients achieving visual acuity of 6/7.5 or better and 57% achieving 6/15 or better. In 29% of the patients, enucleation was finally required, and in 10% of the patients there was metastasis of the melanoma. In 11 of the 15 patients who had a subsequent enucleation, the tumor was a melanoma of mixed cell or epithelioid cell type, and in 12 of these 15 patients the surgical margin was involved by the tumor in the iridocyclectomy specimen. All five patients with metastatic disease had melanomas of mixed cell or epithelioid cell type with involvement of the surgical margin in the iridocyclectomy specimen.