A case of peculiar multiple sebaceous cysts (steatocystoma multiplex) / by J.J. Pringle.

  • Pringle, J. J. (John James), 1855-1922.
Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of peculiar multiple sebaceous cysts (steatocystoma multiplex) / by J.J. Pringle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sebaceous cysts (which are not sebaceous cysts at all), mollusca and neuro-fibromata were obvious, and the idea that the cysts were cysti- cercal first occurred to me, especially as the patient admitted to a special fondness for pork in any form as an article of diet. An exploratory puncture of one of the larger growths was therefore resorted to ; the result being the outflow of an abundant fluid like thin skim-milk. This fluid was neutral in reaction, and under the microscope only very numerous large fat cells were discovered; no epithelial cells, crystals, micro-organisms or hooklets were present. The patient was absent from town for some time, but was shown to the Dermatological Society of London at its meeting in June, where he was exhibited as a possible case of Dubreuilh’s Kystes graisseux sudoripares. No member having seen a similar case, it was generally felt that no firm diagnosis could be established without a microscopic examination of an excised lesion, to which the patient gave his consent. A large and a small tumour were therefore removed and submitted to Dr. Galloway, who kindly furnished me with the ensuing report:— (a.) This is a portion of skin including both epidermis and cutis, containing a cystic tumour about 5mm. in its longest diameter. The contents of this cyst were fluid in consistence, of a milky white colour, and dissolved almost immediately and completely on the tissue being placed in ether to prepare for celloidin embedding. Ouer the most prominent part of the tumour is a distinct orifice. Microscopic Examination.—Six sections were prepared for the purpose of this report. In each the epidermis runs uninjured over the surface of the tumour, the only difference noticeable being that on a.ccount of the flattening of the papillge over the convexity of the tumour, the interpapillary processes of epithelium are also flatter than in the surrounding skin. The cyst approaches very near the surface, but in the sections is distinctly separated by a con¬ siderable layer of corium from the epidermis. The cyst is now quite empty. A distinct epithelial lining surrounds the cyst, only one or two layers of cells thick in some parts, several layers thick in other parts, but always present. The shape of the cells forming this epithelial lining is oval or spheroidal, sometimes a little elongated