Ocular Adnexal Lymphoma Presenting with Visual Loss

Elderly patients with visual loss often have age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and cataract as common causes of visual loss. Other less common etiologies should be considered, especially in those presenting with systemic associations.

The patient discussed in our review is an 80-year-old female, with a history of diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration who presented with a sudden deterioration of vision. While this was initially attributed to diabetic retinopathy, she was eventually noted to have a salmon patch lesion in her conjunctiva, diagnosed on biopsy to be a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Because of the significant rate of disseminated disease among patients with lymphomas in the orbit that carries a worse prognosis, early diagnosis is essential to promote better overall survival of these patients. We describe here a patient diagnosed with conjunctival lymphoma associated with pronounced visual loss and review the literature on this subject.