Multiple pigmented follicular cysts: a subtype of multiple pilosebaceous cysts

Pigmented follicular cyst is a rare disorder which typically presents as a pigmented papule on the head or neck and which, histologically, exhibits terminally differentiated, pigmented hair shafts in an epidermoid cyst. We report a 22-year-old man with the multiple variant of this disorder. Clinically he had numerous brown-blue to flesh-coloured, domed-shaped papules, on the anterior chest and abdomen, of 10 years duration. Histologically, hybrid cysts exhibiting trichilemmal and epidermoid keratinization were seen. The cysts contained numerous pigmented, terminally differentiated hair shafts and, embedded in the wall of one cyst, was a sebaceous gland. The condition of multiple pigmented follicular cysts, is thought to represent a distinct subtype within the spectrum of multiple pilosebaceous cystic disorders.