Ectopic Lacrimal Gland Tissue

Abstract

All of the cases coded as aberrant or ectopic lacrimal gland at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology were reexamined, and observations on 35 are reported. The cornea was involved in ten of the 18 cases in which the choristomatous tissue was present in the bulbar conjunctiva. Ectopic lacrimal gland tissue was present within the eye in one case and was felt to be the cause of a unilateral exophthalmos in eight cases in which the inflamed ectopically placed tissue was found deep in the orbit. Ectopic lacrimal gland tissue in the orbit was associated with a hamartomatous vascular lesion in two patients.