A primary cutaneous vascular neoplasm with histologic features of anastomosing hemangioma

Anastomosing hemangioma (AH) is a relatively novel variant of benign vascular tumors originally described in the genitourinary tract. Although AH was subsequently documented in various anatomic locations, a primary AH of the skin has not been reported in the literature. The current case report documents a vascular lesion with histologic features reminiscent of an AH. A 41-year-old female patient underwent an excision of a painful nodule on the leg. Histologic examination showed a well-circumscribed vascular lesion composed of anastomosing sinusoidal capillary-sized vessels, several intravascular fibrin thrombi, rare intraluminal nucleated red blood cells, and focal intracytoplasmic hyaline globules. As AH was hitherto only documented in extracutaneous sites, most dermatopathologists are probably not familiar with this variant of hemangioma. The current case report details the morphologic features of a potential example of a primary cutaneous AH to increase the awareness of this distinctive hemangioma variant among dermatopathologists. Larger studies of vascular lesions with similar histologic features and immunohistochemical profiles are warranted to investigate the potential existence of primary AH in the skin.