Spontaneous appearance of an optic disk melanocytoma in an adult.
OBJECTIVE
To report a melanocytoma of the optic disk in an adult who had prior photographic documentation that the affected disk was entirely normal.


METHODS
Clinical evaluation and fundus photography.


RESULTS
An asymptomatic 45-year-old woman was found on routine ocular examination to have a typical melanocytoma in her right optic disk. Fundus photographs made 13 years earlier showed a normal right optic disk with no sign of melanocytoma or other pigmented lesion.


CONCLUSIONS
Although optic disk melanocytoma is generally believed to be a congenital lesion, it can apparently develop spontaneously in adulthood.
Shields
Jerry A
JA
Oncology Service, Wills Eye Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, USA.
Shields
Carol L
CL
Piccone
Michele
M
Snady-McCoy
Lory C
LC
D005260:Female; D005654:Fundus Oculi; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009508:Nevus, Pigmented / Q000473:pathology*; D009898:Optic Disk; D019574:Optic Nerve Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012016:Reference Values