Objective: To investigate the effects of Bleomycin A5 on the pathology and ultrastructure of eyelid xanthelasmas.
Methods: Twenty-five randomly selected outpatients from our hospital received 0.2 ml of a 0.4% Bleomycin A5 solution. The drug was directly injected into the tumor every 10 days. In other 5 cases (double up-eyelids xanthelasma), one eye received 0.2 ml of 0.4% Bleomycin A5 injection once and another eye was used as controlling. After one month, operations were performed to remove double up-eyelids xanthelasma tissues, one half of the tissues were investigated by histochemistry; the other half was cut into 1.0 mm x 1.0 mm x 1.5 mm pieces and investigated by electron microscopy.
Results: The clinical investigation demonstrated that 25 cases of the Bleomycin treated tumors disappeared completely and the skin color recovered. The eyelids kept their normal morphology and function. Histopathologic investigation of the Bleomycin treated groups showed fibroblasts hyperplasia and sparse foam cells in shallow derma. In the control group, there are large foam cells in shallow layer of derma. The ultrastructure of the treated specimens showed fat droplets decrease in foam cells in contrary to the control group.
Conclusions: Bleomycin A5 can rapidly inhibit the proliferation of foam cells and induce xanthelasma disappearance. Bleomycin A5 is an easy and safe method to treat eyelid xanthelasma and can be widely used in clinical work.