Amyloid tumour of the eyelids.

AMYLOIDOSIS is usually categorized as a degenerative process. Nevertheless, the nature and pathogenesis of this disorder remain most uncertain. Reimann, Koucky, and Eklund (1935) have classified amyloidosis in four groups: primary, secondary, tumour-forming, and associated with multiple myeloma. Tumour-forming amyloidosis is known to occur as a primary process in the tissues of the eye, urinary bladder, tongue, and upper respiratory passages. Instances of localized amyloidosis involving ocular tissues after chronic inflammation are rare, and only a few have been recorded in the recent literature (Elles, 1945; Chinaglia, 1952; Handousa, 1954; Oppel, 1956). A review of the literature suggests that amyloidosis as such is uncommon in India. Mathur and Bhende (1957) could trace only eighteen reported cases and added two cases of their own. In none of these cases was involvement of the ocular tissues described and to our knowledge no case of tumourforming amyloidosis has been reported from India, although chronic inflammatory conditions of the eye are common.