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ARTICLE
Year : 1961  |  Volume : 9  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 39-40

Rhinosporidiosis of conjunctiva


Department of Ophthalmology and Pathology, G. R. Medical College, Gwalior, M.P, India

Date of Web Publication31-Mar-2008

Correspondence Address:
B S Darbari
Department of Ophthalmology and Pathology, G. R. Medical College, Gwalior, M.P
India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


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How to cite this article:
Darbari B S, Shrivastava S P. Rhinosporidiosis of conjunctiva. Indian J Ophthalmol 1961;9:39-40

How to cite this URL:
Darbari B S, Shrivastava S P. Rhinosporidiosis of conjunctiva. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 1961 [cited 2024 Mar 29];9:39-40. Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ijo/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?1961/9/2/39/39684

Rhinosporidiosis caused by Rhinos­poridium seeberi, is characterized by development of friable, sessile or pedunculated polyps with character­istic histological features. The disease is endemic in India and Ceylon and is believed to be fairly common in certain parts of our country (Allen and Dave, 1936). However, in this part of the country the disease appears to be uncommon. In the last five years only 4 cases of Rhinosporidiosis (in­cluding the one to be described) have been recorded in our institution. All the cases were adult males between the ages 17 to 35 years. In three cases the lesion was in the nose and in the fourth in the conjunctiva. Wright (1922) suggested that the infection was carried by dust or water and the disease is more common in those who dived or swam in water or dug earth etc. on the river bed. It has also been suggested that the infection is pri­marily a disease of fish and that men and animals are accidental hosts. There is no river or any other big water reservoir with fishes in this area. This fact probably can explain the low incidence of Rhinosporidiosis in this part of the country.

The usual site of the disease is nose. Rarely eyes, ears, larynx, skin and other parts of the body are involved. The authors therefore wish to describe a case of Rhinosporidiosis of the con­junctive as a rare condition.


  Case Report Top


Vishwanath, male, aged 10 years, complained of excessive lacrimation, redness of conjunctiva and a feeling of some growth in the right eye. He was a resident of Datia, Madhya Pra­desh. He belonged to a farmer family and had to work with mud etc., on a river bed. On examination there was a small pinkish granular nodule measuring 0.4 cms, in diameter with a small white area situated on the bulbar conjunctiva of the right eye. The nodule was pedunculated and was freely mobile. Tentative clinical diagnosis of pedunculated tubercular growth was made. The growth was excised. Left eye and nose were normal.

Histological examination revealed multiple sporangium of Rhinospori­dium seeberi, containing numerous spores, of varying sizes [Figure - 1]. There were also ruptured and empty sporangia and endospores were scat­tered about on the epithelial surface [Figure - 2]. The surrounding tissue showed chronic inflammatory cell in­filtration consisting of lymphocytes and plasma cells [Figure - 3] The fibro­cellular tissue was covered by proli­ferated stratified squamous epithelium.


  Comments Top


Rhinosporidiosis of conjunctiva is uncommon. Kirkpatrick (1909) has been quoted by Wright (1922) to be the first to observe Rhinosporidiosis of the conjunctiva. There were only 4 cases of Rhinosporidiosis of the con­junctiva out of 60 cases of Rhinospori­diosis published by Allen and Dave (1936). A few other cases of rhinos­poridiosis of conjunctiva has been re­ported (Ingram, 1910 quoted by Allen and Dave; Wright, 1922; Arnold and Whildin, 1942). However, Karunaratne (1936) observed invol­vement of eye in 40 (14%) out of his 280 cases of Rhinosporidiosis.

Mandlick, quoted by Conant et al (1945) suggested that the disease is more common in those who are fre­quently concerned with river or stag­nant water as has been observed in our case too.[5]


  Summary Top


A case of Rhinosporidiosis of the conjunctiva has been described. The patient was a boy aged 10 years be­longing to a farmer family, working with mud on a river bed.

 
  References Top

1.
Allen, F. R. W. K., and Dave, M. (1936) Ind. Med. Gazette, 71 : 376-394.  Back to cited text no. 1
    
2.
Arnold, R., and Whildin, J. (1942) Am. J. Ophth. 25 : 1227.  Back to cited text no. 2
    
3.
Conant, N. F., Martin, D. S., Smith, D. T., Baker, R. D. and Callaway, J. L. (1945) Manual of Clinical Mycology, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia and London, p. 200-208.  Back to cited text no. 3
    
4.
Karunaratne, W. A. E. (1936) J. Path. Bact. .42; 193-202.  Back to cited text no. 4
    
5.
Wright, R. E. (1922) Ind. Med. Gazette, 57: 6-7.  Back to cited text no. 5
    


    Figures

  [Figure - 1], [Figure - 2], [Figure - 3]



 

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