Rare eye tumour removed from 50-year-old woman

When 50-year-old Parvati Patil felt a pain in her left eye, she thought that her cataract surgery had gone wrong and didn't visit a doctor because of fear.

It was only after the pain became unbearable that she went the doctor, who referred her to KEM Hospital. The examination revealed that Patil was suffering from a rare form of tumour in the eye.

"We diagnosed her with ocular melanoma of the eye which is rare. A delay in treatment can endanger a patient's life. Patil had come to us very late. Her eye had to be removed," said Dr Sheela Kerkar, associate professor, KEM hospital's ophthalmology department.

The tumour have been sent for biopsy to find out if it is malignant or benign tumour. "The doctor who operated her for cataract had asked her to see a senior doctor. We had ignored that. Later, the pain started. We thought it was because of the cataract operation that she had had a few months ago. We have not yet told her that her eye has been removed," said Navnit, Parvati's son.

Experts said the cause of ocular melanoma of the eye is not known but can be related to exposure to the UV rays. The risk factors involves being fair skinned or having  light-coloured hair and eye colour, having dysplastic nevus syndrome, a condition that causes abnormal moles and having oculodermal melanocytosis, a rare condition that causes increased and abnormal pigmentation of the eye and skin around the eye.

"Such cases are one in 1 lakh. We are waiting for the biopsy results to come after which we will decide on chemotherapy. Patil is recovering well," said Dr Arjun Ahuja, head of the ophthalmology department, KEM hospital.