[Pilomatricoma: a study of 22 cases]

Pilomatricoma is a common and benign skin tumor of childhood arising from the hair follicle matrix. It is an often misunderstood adnexal tumor, confused with other skin lesions. The most common sites of pilomatricome are the head and the neck. The aim of this study was to report a series of 22 cases with unusual forms collected in the dermatology department from January 2006 to May 2015. The study included 16 women and 6 men. The average age was 23.3 years (4- 80 years). Cervicofacial location was observed in 12 cases, 2 patients had multiple locations, a 4 year-old boy had frontotemporal location, a 14 year-old girl had face and forearm location and a 48 year-old patient had subungual location. Clinical features were typical in all cases, with subcutaneous nodules with a stony-hard consistency. All patients underwent excision of nodules under local anesthesia. Histological study supported a completely excised Malherbe's mummified tumor without malignancy. No patients relapsed. The originality of our study lies in the presence of exceptional locations in laterovertebral region, on limbs and in the subungual region and of unusual age of onset (80 year-old) as well as the presence of multiple tumor locations reported in 2 children.