The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinicopathological features of cystic lesions in the eyelid. Clinicopathological profiles were retrospectively searched based on medical records of 35 patients with cystic lesions of the eyelids, which were surgically resected from January 2003 to June 2016. The cohort consisted of 16 men and 19 women. The mean age of the patients was 57±24 years. The main locations of the cysts were the upper eyelid in 22 patients, followed by the lower eyelid in 5 patients. Eyelid skin and its appendages were the most common as the origin of cysts, followed by the tarsus, palpebral conjunctiva and lacrimal gland. The histopathological diagnoses were 16 epidermal cysts, 5 intratarsal keratinous cysts, 3 conjunctival cysts, 2 trichilemmal cysts, 1 dermoid cyst, 1 apocrine hidrocystoma, 1 lacrimal gland cyst and 6 unclassifiable cysts. All cysts did not recur following resection. In summary, cystic lesions of the eyelid were frequently observed in the upper eyelid. The most frequent diagnoses were epidermal cysts, followed by intratarsal keratinous cysts, while a definitive diagnosis in some cysts could not be pathologically determined, as they lacked epithelia and/or the contents or they resembled apocrine hidrocystoma and intratarsal keratinous cysts with atypical findings. The results of the current study indicate that the incidence and differential diagnosis of eyelid cystic lesions may contribute to the application of appropriate treatment for patients with eyelid tumors.

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