Introduction

Ocular cytology can be very useful to the clinician in establishing a diagnosis, determining if a patient is responding appropriately to therapy, or determining the necessity for additional diagnostic testing. The clinician’s familiarity with the appearance of normal tissue and resident cell types is essential for accurate interpretation of a cytologic specimen. Before a pathologic process can be identified, an understanding of what is normal is critical. Each ocular structure has a distinct histology. Normal cytology will be reviewed in each section and followed by cytologic appearance of pathologic processes.