Morphologic studies of the pathogenesis of ligneous conjunctivitis

The cases of ligneous conjunctivitis published since 1964 are presented in a review of the literature. A total of 84 cases have been described. The predominance of this disease in women is lower than was previously thought. Ligneous conjunctivitis tends to occur more frequently in children. However, it is not a "disease of little girls". Two cases are described in the present paper, including pathomorphological studies. In both cases, neutrophilic granulocytes were studied by electron microscopy. The results are compared with a control case and with corresponding reports in the literature. The number of granules in the neutrophilic granulocytes was significantly reduced in both cases. In one of the cases studied the granules were increased in size. These findings support the hypothesis that ligneous conjunctivitis could be the result of a lowered resistance associated with a disturbance of wound healing.