Case Series of Cutaneous Adnexal Tumours; a Voice to the Existing Literatures, a Tertiary Hospital Experience in South-South Nigeria

Introduction: Cutaneous adnexal neoplasms have limitless morphologic varieties. Their clinical appearance is typically non-specific. To make a specific diagnosis of cutaneous adnexal neoplasm is important because some benign cutaneous adnexal tumours are markers of multiple endocrine neoplasms (MEN); others have a confirmed risk of transformation into malignant neoplasm. We noticed a paucity of data on the subject matter in our environment in particular and in Nigeria in general. This report is a case series of the histopathological types of cutaneous adnexal tumours over a 10 year period at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria.

Methodology: It was a 10-year retrospective case series of cutaneous adnexal tumours seen in UBTH from January 2004-December 2013. Histology slides were retrieved, studied and lesions characterized using the World Health Organization classification of cutaneous tumours. The data obtained from this study was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 16 (SPSS 16, SPSSInc. Chicago, Illinois, United States of America).

Reports of Case Series: Cutaneous adnexal tumours (CATs) are rare in our own environment and accounted for 1.6% of all cutaneous (skin) tumours during the period under review. They occurred more commonly in males giving a male to female ratio of 5:1. There was neither a case of malignant CAT nor was there a case of cutaneous tumour of follicular or sebaceous differentiation reported. The benign cutaneous sweat gland tumours had a prevalence of 100% of the CATs. Eccrine poroma was the most common benign cutaneous sweat gland tumour and by extension the most common CATs.

Conclusion: Cutaneous adnexal tumours are relatively rare with their composition skewed in favour of the benign cutaneous tumours in general and benign cutaneous sweat gland tumours (eccrine and apocrine differentiation) in particular. Multicentre studies may help in giving a more acceptable conclusion for the Nigeria population.