Clinicopathological study of cutaneous adnexal tumors in a tertiary hospital of South India

Abstract

Introduction: Tumors of the cutaneous appendages are uncommon. They are categorized into sweat gland tumors, hair follicle tumors and sebaceous gland tumors. Benign adnexal neoplasm’s are more common than the malignant tumors. Aim: To study the spectrum of adnexal tumors of skin with respect to age, sex, site and histopathological pattern. Methodology: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 40 histopathologically confirmed cases of cutaneous adnexal tumors in a tertiary hospital of South India during three years. All the specimens of cutaneous adnexal tumors received during this period were analysed and lesions were categorized according to WHO classification system for Skin Adnexal Tumors. Result: 40 cases of Skin adnexal tumors were diagnosed during the study period. 21 cases (55%) were benign, while 19 cases (45%) were malignant. Skin adnexal tumors were most common in the age group of 31-50 years (35%), with equal sex distribution. The head and neck region was the most common site affected (37.5%) with 45% located on the face. The sweat gland tumors formed the largest group involving 55% cases followed by the hair follicle tumors (25%), followed by 10% each of apocrine gland and sebaceous gland tumors. Pilomatricoma was the most common benign tumor and malignant nodular hidradenoma was the most frequent malignant adnexal tumor in our study. Conclusion: Histopathological examination is the gold standard in the diagnosis of cutaneous adnexal tumors due to their wide spectrum and frequency of differentiation along two different lines within the same lesion. Keywords: Adnexal tumors, Histopathology, Skin, Pilomatricoma, syringocystadenoma