Corneal Xanthomas in Childhood

Abstract

During the last 15 years there has been growing interest in the problems raised by the occurrence of ocular xanthomas in children with normal serum lipids and without prior injury or infection of the eyes. The purpose of this paper is to describe two unusual pediatric patients with xanthomas in the cornea and elsewhere around the eye who illustrate the difficulties of classification and treatment of these lesions. The first patient is unusual because of the extensive bilateral corneal involvement, with long-term follow-up information available; and the second is unique because of the joint occurrence of monomyelocytic leukemia with cutaneous and corneal xanthomas. Primary growth of xanthomas in the cornea has been infrequently reported. The best-described case in the English literature is that of the 5-year-old girl 1 who had skin and eyelid lesions in addition to bilateral limbal-corneal xanthomas. Massimeo 2 refers to several brief reports of children who