A juvenile case of conjunctival atypical nevus

Melanocytic nevi are the most common tumors of the conjunctiva, accounting for 28% of all neoplastic lesions. These tumors, despite their benign behavior, share some atypical histological features with nevi found in other anatomic sites like the genital and acral regions, globally designated as nevi with site-related atypia. Moreover, in children and adolescents, rapidly growing conjunctival nevi show sometimes worrisome histological patterns in association with a prominent inflammatory infiltrate that may lead to diagnostic problems. In this paper we describe a juvenile compound nevus characterized by marked melanocytic atypia and severe inflammation, which can be considered a rare case of juvenile conjunctival atypical nevus. The final diagnosis relied on morphological and immunohistochemical characterization of the large epithelioid melanocytic cells, and on the results of FISH analysis.