A clinical review of 209 pilomatricomas☆,☆☆
Section snippets
PATIENTS AND METHODS
Case histories of patients with pilomatricoma who were seen between 1976 and 1996 were examined. The age, site, size, physical appearance at examination, and preoperative diagnosis were noted. Histologic evidence confirmed the diagnosis. Additional cases were detected by review of hospital pathology reports and subsequent examination of clinical notes. In total, 209 cases were studied, 125 in female patients and 84 in male patients.
Age at examination
The youngest patient was 18 months of age, and the oldest patient was 86 years of age (Fig. 1).The peak age of presentation was 5 to 15 years in female patients and up to 5 years in male patients. There was a second peak in adults between 50 and 65 years of age. The ratio of female to male patients was 1.5:1 overall but was 2.5:1 in patients less than 20 years of age. Most patients (53%) had a tumor for no longer than 6 months. However, the time to diagnosis
DISCUSSION
Our study has confirmed the wide range of presentation of pilomatricomas. Although many pilomatricomas resemble an epidermoid cyst, others can mimic a variety of malignant tumors.
More than one half of the tumors were located on the head, but only 9.5% of them originated on the scalp, perhaps surprising for a tumor whose origin is from hair follicles. Noguchi et al.10 suggested that the distribution of pilomatricoma corresponds to the density of hair follicles at a particular site. The hairy
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