RESUMO
The orbit and adnexa are frequent sites of cystic lesions of which dermoid cysts are the most common. There is however a small number of cysts which do not exhibit typical dermoid histopathologic features and which deserve a more appropriate denomination. Nine such lesions have been uncovered in 90 patients who underwent surgery for removal of orbital and adnexal dermoid cysts between 1982 and 1995. The cysts were predominantly located in the anterior medial orbit close to the trochlea, all were lined by nonkeratinized stratified epithelium or bilayered cuboidal epithelium but lacked the usual sebaceous and hairy contents of dermoid cysts. Previous authors have pnaccurately called this group conjunctival dermoid cysts, but because of the nature of the cyst lining, they are more accurately denominated a subset of a more general term, choristomatous cysts