[Reese's conjunctival melanosis. Two anatomicoclinical observations with ultrastructural study in one case]

Two cases of Reese's conjunctival melanosis are reported. Inflammatory signs revealed the presence of the lesion in a 58-year-old woman, examination demonstrating diffuse brown conjunctival, tarsal, and bulbar pigmentation in the right eye, raised above the surface at the sclerocorneal junction. Histology after exenteration demonstrated coexisting diffuse atypical melanocytic hyperplasia (precancerous melanosis), an intraepithelial melanoma (cancerous melanosis), and an invasive melanoma which was the object of an ultrastructural study. The second case, a 57-year-old woman, had a 20-year history of stable, diffuse black pigmentation of the bulbar conjunctiva of the right eye. Four months after biopsy, a pedunculated tumor of the internal canthus developed, corresponding to a poorly differentiated epithelioid cell malignant melanoma. These two cases are compared with similar observations reported in the literature.