Recurrent orbital and metastatic melanoma in a patient undergoing previous glaucoma surgery

A 61-year-old woman had unilateral acute angle-closure glaucoma and subsequently underwent a Scheie filtering operation. After a two-week interval, a large choroidal and ciliary body melanoma in the glaucomatous eye was found. No evidence of metastatic disease was found and the eye was enucleated. Histopathologic sections did not show extrascleral extension. Two and one-half years later the patient developed local orbital recurrence of the melanoma and fatal metastatic disease. We hypothesized a possible causal relationship between the filtering surgery and the local and systemic recurrence of the tumor.