Use of hyaluronic acid gel in the management of cicatricial ectropion: results and complications.

AIMS: To report our experience using hyaluronic acid gel injection in the lower eyelid to treat cicatricial ectropion. METHODS: Clinical records and literature review. RESULTS: Between November 2009 and June 2011, 12 lower eyelids of 11 patients with cicatricial ectropion were treated with hyaluronic acid gel. All 11 patients demonstrated improvement in the eyelid position after treatment but only 3 patients (27.3%) experimented total correction after injection. Although the correction was partial in the majority of the patients, the signs and symptoms associated with conjunctival and corneal exposure improved in all patients. Seven patients (63.7%) developed irregular fullness which resolved over time, but in 4 patients (36.3%) fullness persisted for one year. CONCLUSIONS: In our experience, hyaluronic acid gel is a nonsurgical, minimally invasive and safe technique that improves cicatricial ectropion, but with a poor cosmetic result that limits its use. This treatment could be considered only in patients who decline surgery or are poor surgical candidates, as the aesthetic result would not be acceptable to many.

Peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumour of the orbit.

Peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumours (pPNETs) are a group of soft-tissue tumours of neuroepithelial origin that arise outside the central and sympathetic nervous system. Orbital location is infrequent, and to the best of the authors' knowledge only 16 cases have been reported in the literature. With this article, the authors report the demographics and clinical characteristics, diagnostic features, differential diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic options of primary orbital peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumour, based on their patients and on the cases reported in the literature to date. A differential diagnosis should be made with other small round cell tumours; immunohistochemical and ultrastructural techniques are essential for this purpose. Although bone invasion and extraorbital extension are possible, systemic metastases are uncommon in the cases of orbital pPNETs. Surgery has been the initial treatment in most cases; chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy is considered the best additional treatment. The orbital pPNET could be less aggressive than other forms of pPNETs, since most of the patients reported were alive after the follow-up period (at least 6 months).