[Follow-up after enucleation in choroid melanoma]

We report on 31 patients who underwent enucleation between 1976 and 1984 for uveal melanoma and had a mean follow-up of 107 months. There was no irradiation to the globe or orbit prior to enucleation, which was done under general anesthesia. Histology showed that: the average diameter of the tumors was 10.6 mm and the average height 6.2 mm. There were 3 cases of spindle-cell A-type tumors, 19 of spindle-cell B, 2 of mixed cell types, and 7 cases of mixed cell types with epithelioid cell dominance or epithelioid cell tumors. In September 1988, 9 patients (29%) had died as of a result of metastases from the melanoma; 4 patients who died were found to have another malignant tumor; 1 patient died due to cerebral apoplexia; 1 patient died 8 days after enucleation due to unknown causes. The survival curve was based on the Kaplan-Meier method.