Posterior uveal melanomas in aphakic and pseudophakic eyes

Of 650 eyes with posterior uveal melanomas that were accessioned at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology from 1975 to 1983, 28 were aphakic and eight were pseudophakic. In ten of these 36 cases, the cataract had been unilateral. Only two patients had been examined with preoperative A-scan ultrasonography to obtain the axial length of the eye. None of the patients had been examined for possible intraocular tumors by either A- or B-scan ultrasonography. We believe that in many of these cases the tumor was large enough to have been detected at the time of cataract surgery. Thus, if the lens is too opaque for the fundus to be viewed, B-scan ultrasonography should be used before cataract extraction.