This is a weird growth that some people are born with. It's called a dermoid. It can enlarge over time, as this one has. (This guy walked in this week is in his 20's. Time to remove it, don't ya think?) You can see it has hair growing on it. Sometimes there's bone and teeth and cartilage and other Frankensteinian components in them. Growths like this that consist of tissue not normally found at the site are called "choristomas". One choristoma made it to the big screen in the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," where the Aunt is telling the fiance of the lump that was removed from her back that had teeth and hair in it, and that it was the remnants of her twin that was never born. It was a great scene, and a proud day for choristomas everywhere.
Often, ocular dermoids go deep into the substance of the eye wall, so despite it's "stuck-on" appearance, you can't just slice it off, (or lacking instruments, pluck it off), because you could end up with a hole in the eye. So you have to have donor tissue available to patch up the hole at the time of surgery. They occur in about one per 10,000 people.
5 comments:
And that's why I don't eat chickpeas
glad to see you post once again! :)
David-
Somehow my Cataract/Lasik schedule here in Texas doesn't seem near as exciting or as rewarding as what you are doing. I have always day-dreamed of running off to an island and opening up shop. I just didn't realize that docs from the states actually do that. That's awesome that you have! Keep up the good work.
Wow! Gross! Love the chickpea comment. lol!
I haven't been on your blog in quite awhile and I noticed you have my old blog link. I have changed to wordpress many moons ago. Here is link
http://blog.angiejordan.com/
I'll try to stop by more often.
Glad you are actively posting!
The picture of ocular dermoids that you show is pretty clear. Can we in fact avoid or detect it quite early on its development?
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