[Kaposi's sarcoma with ocular location in Zaire]. / La sarcome de Kaposi à localisation oculaire au Zaïre.

OBJECTIVE: a clinical study of patients with ocular adnexal Kaposi's sarcoma was undertaken to study its clinical characteristics. METHODS: A review of all patients with biopsy confirmed ocular adnexal Kaposi's sarcoma seen between 1962 and 1991. RESULTS: There were eleven patients during this period with the incidence of 1.25 for 10,000 cases. Ages ranged from one to 47 years (average, 33 years). There were 6 males and 5 females. One (9%) patient was seen during the period of 1961 and 1981 and 10 (91%)during the period 1982 and 1991. Of the 10 patients, 9 had ocular Kaposi's sarcoma lesions related to acquires immunodeficiency syndrome. Lesions involved the right and the left eyes in 50% of cases. Localization of lesions was palpebral in 9 (82%) patients and conjunctival in 2 (18%) patients. The clinical appearance was tumoral, modular, polypoid and as subconjunctival hemorrhage. Three patients underwent excision of tumor. The recurrence was of 100% in approximately three weeks of time. All patients infected with HIV died. CONCLUSION: Ocular Kaposi's sarcoma was not common and its presence is related in most of cases to HIV infection and could be the first manifestation of HIV infection.

Conjunctival rhinosporidiosis. Report of three cases from Zaire.

The authors report three cases of conjunctival rhinosporidiosis from Zaire, two of which are believed to be the first documented in the northeastern part of the country. All patients were males. Two patients were very young children, respectively 5 and 6 years old. The third patient was a 35-year-old man. The diagnosis was based on histopathology which revealed the characteristic features of Rhinosporidium seeberi. Total excision was the elective treatment. The disease recurred eleven months later in one case, probably from local dissemination of the parasite during surgery.

[Anterior lenticonus, suggesting Alport syndrome. Apropos of a first case in Zaire]. / Le lenticône antérieur, évoquant un syndrome d'Alport. A propos de la première observation zaïroise.

Anterior lenticonus is a rare condition, in which there is a conical or spherical protrusion of the anterior surface into the anterior chamber. This is demonstrated by this case report, which has not been previously described in the Black African or Zairian ophthalmological literature. The patient was 28 years old and complained of gradual deterioration of vision over several years. The visual acuity was 20/200. The slit lamp biomicroscope showed an anterior lenticonus with microopacities of the lens. On fundus examination, a fundus albipunctatus-like appearance with midperipheral retinal flecks and macular hole were found. The presence of associated ocular abnormalities, deafness and hematuria, is suggestive of Alport's syndrome.

[Surgical treatment of pterygium: 24 cases of excision]. / Traitement chirurgical du ptérygion: 42 cas d'excision.

Forty-two eyes (32 patients) with pterygia were treated with simple excision at the Ophthalmologic Clinic of University of Kinshasa during a four year period (from Jan. 1, 1983, to Dec. 31, 1986). The mean age of patients with pterygia was 36 years (range of 22 to 70 years). Nineteen (59%) patients were males and thirteen (41%) were females. Twenty (48%) pterygia affected right and left eyes and 9 (21%) pterygia affected the right eye and 13 (31%) the left eye. The pterygia were classified in four stages according to the degree of penetration from the surface of the cornea. Most of the excised pterygia were at stage one or two. With an average follow-up of six months (range, one to 34 months), 10 (24%) of the eyes had recurrences following their primary irrespective of the eye condition and the stage of advancement. Rate of recurrence of pterygium after primary excision was higher before the age of 40 years. The recurrences were also twice higher in females than in males. Excision of the recurrent pterygia indicated a recurrence rate of 100%. These results confirm that simple resection was not indicated for recurrent pterygium, which could be treated with an other surgical technique as previously recommended. The results of this study showed that the primary excision could be reserved only for pterygium at stage 1 or 2 after the age of 40 years.

[Amplitude of accommodation in Zairian subjects]. / L'amplitude d'accommodation chez le Zaïrois.

The authors studied the amplitude of accommodation in Zairian patients who consulted the Ophthalmic Clinic of University of Kinshasa from February 24 to July 31, 1986. During this period, of 1326 Zairians seen, 159 (318 eyes) were included in this study. Patients with monocular visual acuities less than 10/10, or with ocular pathology, astigmatisms and anisometropias exceeding one diopter were excluded from the study. The mean age +/- SD was 32 years +/- 12 with a range of 10 to 58 years. There were 101 males and 58 females. The measurements were performed, once for each patient, with Osterberg Bino-Oculus apparatus according to the "push-up" method and the plus spherical method. The amplitude of accommodation decreased with the age. This decrease was more notable between 30 and 40 years. The age of onset of presbyopia calculated from the amplitude of accommodation according to the "push-up" method was 39 years. The values of the amplitude of accommodation obtained by the both methods could be superposed (p greater than 0.05). They were similar to those of black patients and were also inferior to the white patients obtained by other authors.

[Causes of enucleation in Zaire]. / Les causes d'énucléation au Zaïre.

The primary causes of 143 enucleations in Zaïre are reviewed. Trauma is the most important cause (37 per cent) and the next in importance is malignant tumor. The male:female ratio is 1.2:1.