[Subungual glomus tumors. Apropos of 2 cases]

Glomus tumours are uncommon, though not exceptional, benign growths developed from the constituents of the "neuromyoarterial glomus" initially described by Masson. Two cases of subungual glomus tumours of the hand in middle-aged women are reported. In spite of characteristic symptoms, with paroxysmal episodes of pain triggered off by cold and the most minute traumas, and of the finding in both cases of a violine++ tumour under the nail, the condition was belatedly diagnosed (7 and 27 years respectively after the onset of symptoms). Diagnosis rested not so much on standard radiography, which showed erosion of the distal phalanx in both patients, as on arteriography of the hand which displayed a small vascular pool at the arterial stage. Tumoral excision was successful.