[Intraepithelial capillary hemangioma?]

Histological examination of a biopsy of a lesion of the glans penis revealed blood capillaries within the malpighian epithelium.

A 66 year-old man exhibited two circumscribed red plaques of the glans penis following posthectomy. Their histological examination revealed blood capillaries within the epithelium without basal membrane and pericytes between the endothelial cells and keratinocytes. Further evolution was towards lichen planus of the genital mucous membranes. In spite of a verrucous carcinoma which had been surgically removed, the evolution within a follow-up time of 6 years was favorable.

Blood capillaries ascending in the epithelium of the genital mucous membranes have been observed in a special variant of Zoon's balanitis, the lichenoid, telangiectatic and purpuric balanitis described by Jonquières in 1971. In our patient exhibiting a lichen planus of the glans penis, the occurrence of blood vessels in the malpighian layer of the epithelium may be interpreted as the consequence of an unusual epithelial and vascular regeneration of an erosive lichenoid lesion. It may also be interpreted as an original neoplasia, and could therefore be considered as a genital intraepithelial capillary hemangioma.