Eccrine angiomatous hamartoma: a retrospective study of 15 cases

Eccrine angiomatous hamartoma (EAH) comprises a rare nevoid proliferation of normal eccrine glands and small blood vessels and occasionally other elements in the middle and deep dermis with variable clinical manifestations. Case series have rarely been published except for case reports and literature reviews. The aims of this article were to investigate the clinical and pathologic features of patients with EAH in Taiwan and to compare our results with the results of previous studies.

A retrospective review of medical records and histopathological findings was performed on patients diagnosed with EAH in a medical center in Taiwan between 1994 and 2010.

Fifteen patients with pathologically diagnosed EAH were collected. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 38.6 years (range, birth to 67 years). The male to female ratio was 3 to 2. In most cases, EAH arose as a single lesion on a lower extremity. The symptoms and signs most commonly associated with EAH were pain (60%), hypertrichosis (13.3%), itching (13.3%) and hyperhidrosis (6.7%). Additional pathological findings included hemangioma (13.3%), verrucous hemangioma (6.7%), arteriovenous malformation (6.7%), and angiokeratoma (6.7%). None of the patients experienced spontaneous regression of the lesions before excision. Excisions were done in one patient under general anesthesia, and ten patients with local anesthesia. Four patients were kept under observation. Tumor recurrences were noted in two out of the eleven patients whose lesions were excised.

Compared with cases in the literature, we found additional histopathological findings and an increased tumor recurrence risk in our cohort. EAH remains a benign and uncommon hamartomatous condition. Further multi-center, retrospective studies with larger case numbers are needed to better characterize the disease presentation in Asian populations.