A case of myoma multiplex of the skin / by H. Radcliffe Crocker.

  • Crocker, H. Radcliffe (Henry Radcliffe), 1845-1909.
Date:
[1897?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of myoma multiplex of the skin / by H. Radcliffe Crocker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    In the ctiscussion of these cases, the last two by Wolters must be considered separately, as they differ so markedly from all the rest in their clinical characters. An analysis of the other cases shows that there were seven females and four males; that the age at which the tumours began to develop varied from infancy (Hess’s case was probably congenital) to 60 years ; that the tumours varied in size from a millet seed to a hazel nut, but that they were seldom larger than a pea; that the number of the tumours was very variable, sometimes being “ innumerable ” (Verneuil and Besnier), or in moderate numbers, and with a very limited dis- tribution, the latter being the rule. While, also, the tumours may be isolated, there was a strong tendency to group with or without coales- cence either into irregular patches or in lines or bands, but wherever there was an interval, the intervening skin was normal. There might be only a single patch, as in Hardaway’s, Hess’s, and in my own cases, or there might be several patches with or without scattered single tumours, but there was no symmetrical arrangement either in the groups or isolated lesions. Sometimes the aggregation was so close that an infiltration was produced. The colour was usually brownish- red, or some other shade of red, removable by pressure, but once yellowish, and even semi-translucent, as in Hess’s case, which was rather an exceptional one. The surface of the skin over the growths was always normal, the texture firm, and the tumours were in the skin, and freely movable with it over the subjacent parts. The new growths developed very slowly, at first singly, but with a tendency to constantly increase both in size and number, without antecedent lesion, except in Brigidi and Marcacci’s case, in which swelling of the part was the first sign observed. Sooner or later there was pain in six out of the eleven cases, the other five having been painless throughout. The pains were usually spontaneous, paroxysmal and severe, lasting from minutes to hours, but could always be excited by strong pressure, and sometimes by changes of temperature, espe- cially by cold. These pains developed gradually, and were generally absent until the tumours had attained to the size of a pea or larger, but in Hardaway’s case, pain in the region in which the tumours subsequently appeared was the first symptom to attract the patient s attention. Itching was present in one of Jadassohn’s cases. Micro- scopical examination makes it probable that the pains were due to