[Orbital space-occupying lesions: an 11-year study of cases with histopathologic analysis seen at Hospital das Clínicas of FMUSP].

PURPOSE To report the incidence of orbital space-occupying lesions in an 11-year interval study of patients examined at the Hospital das Clínicas of FMUSP, and to evaluate which are the main specialties involved in the diagnosis and treatment of such conditions. METHODS All cases of orbital space-occupying lesions in the period from 1993 to 2004 were revised. Of 924 obtained medical records, 155 were selected after histopathological analysis. Another 111 cases were gathered from the personal archives of a pathologist responsible for Ophthalmic Histopathology, from which 45 cases were excluded because they had already been included in the first source analysis. The data were analyzed and compared with the results from other institutions. RESULTS Of the studied 181 orbital space-occupying lesions, 70% were primary, 23% secondary, 6% metastatic and lymphomas, and 1% was not classified. The most common specialties involved ophthalmologists in 72.37% of all 181 cases, head and neck surgeons in 14.36%, neurosurgeons in 6.62%, and others in 6.62%. CONCLUSIONS The orbital mass lesions were treated mostly by an expert ophthalmologist. When other specialties were included, there was a modest increase in secondary tumor incidence when the final result was compared with previous studies on this subject. Our findings indicate that the creation of a trustworthy register of all orbital space-occupying lesions in Brazilian specialized services is necessary. The multidisciplinary character of the orbital mass lesions is corroborated by this review.