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Eye Care (Expert Forum)
eye mole
Answered by
John C Hagan III, MD, FACS - Ophthalmology
Discover Vision Centers
Kansas City - MO
Our Ask A Doctor Ophthalmology Forum is where you can post your question and receive a personal answer from physicians affiliated with the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Doctor's Answer
by John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, Aug 04, 2007 09:21PM
, Aug 04, 2007 09:21PM
The most common benign "spot" in the eye is a thing that under the microscope looks like the common freckle or mole on your skin. It occurs in the middle layer of the eye (choroid) and the pathologists call it a choroidal nevus. That's not a term that most people will recognize so to enhance communication many ophthalmologists just say there is a mole or freckle in the eye.
Now to continue the comparison some moles on the skin are very innocent looking and no-one worries about them; others are raised, have irregular borders and uneven pigmentation and are large. When a dermatologist looks at those they raise a danger signal that it might be a malignant melonoma and needs to be removed and biopsied. The eye is the same way. Most eye moles/freckles are the first kind, small, flat, even pigmentation and regular borders. Because the person can't see it all we usually do is tell you about it, sometimes take a picture of it and ask you to come back yearly. At other times the eye mole is big, elevated, irregular in shape and may even detach the retina. Those need special tests to see if its a malignant melanoma of the eye.
JCH III MD Eye Physician and Surgeon
Now to continue the comparison some moles on the skin are very innocent looking and no-one worries about them; others are raised, have irregular borders and uneven pigmentation and are large. When a dermatologist looks at those they raise a danger signal that it might be a malignant melonoma and needs to be removed and biopsied. The eye is the same way. Most eye moles/freckles are the first kind, small, flat, even pigmentation and regular borders. Because the person can't see it all we usually do is tell you about it, sometimes take a picture of it and ask you to come back yearly. At other times the eye mole is big, elevated, irregular in shape and may even detach the retina. Those need special tests to see if its a malignant melanoma of the eye.
JCH III MD Eye Physician and Surgeon
