Isolated Long White Eyelash: An Underrecognized Trichologic Finding.

Sir,

Herein, we report a case of a girl with an unusual physical feature, which is not reported in the medical literature. However, similar cases can be easily detected in internet.

A 9-year-old girl of nonconsanguineous Moroccan parents, presented with an isolated long white eyelash in the upper left eyelid for 18 months. This eyelash was a terminal hair and presented no underlying skin lesions [Figures 1 and 2]. At the moment of presentation, the eyelash was only 2 cm long because she had it removed 3 weeks before. His father reported that this eyelash could grow up to 5 cm in length and that it took around 2 months to regrowth if it was plucked out. She had a normal growth and development for her age, and her personal history and rest of the physical examination was otherwise unremarkable. Her parents brought her because the abnormal long eyelash got into her eye and was becoming a nuisance in everyday life and peer relationships. Her family history was only remarkable for his father at 35 being completely grey-haired, and also several second-degree relatives with premature greying of hair.

Figure 1

Isolated long white eyelash in upper left eyelid

Figure 2

Microscopy – Medulated white terminal hair

We have done a PubMed search with different keywords and found no similar reported cases. Thus as far as we know this would be the first case reported in the medical literature. However, when we searched the internet, we found several sites showing similar cases, including internet forums, a Facebook site, YouTube video, and a Guiness World Record [Figure 3].[1234]

Figure 3

Internet case – Guiness World Record: Longest eyelash. It is an isolated white long eyelash, as our patient (according to http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-2000/longest-eyelash/)

Internet and social network are changing the way people communicate, and it may change the way doctors communicate and report clinical cases. World as reflected by medical literature may be just the tip of the iceberg of what it is out there in reality. It is our duty as medical professionals to go outside our journals, search the real and virtual world in all its medical manifestations and report it.