A case of keratoacanthoma of the limbal conjunctiva

Keratoacanthomas are fairly common neoplasms of the eyelid, but they are rarely found on the bulbar conjunctiva. A 47-year-old male was examined for inflammation in the left eye with an occasional foreign-body sensation. A rapidly enlarging nodular lesion was found in the left bulbar conjunctiva temporal to the corneoscleral limbus and easily resected from the underlying sclera. Histopathologic examination of the lesion showed the presence of stratified squamous epithelium with a central crater containing whorls of keratinized epithelium, leading to a diagnosis of keratoacanthoma. No evidence of recurrence of this lesion was noted over a 12-month observation period. To our knowledge, this is the second documented case in Japan of keratoacanthoma of the bulbar conjunctiva.