title: Delayed reaction to suture material simulating melanoma.
abstract: A twenty-one-year-old woman who had been involved in an accident sustained severe trauma to the left side of her face and scalp. Because of deterioration in her neurologic condition, a number of exploratory burr holes were drilled in her skull. Fifteen years later, a 6 mm black tender nodule was noted on the left temple, close to one of the burr holes. Nodular melanoma was suspected, but results of microscopic examination proved the lesion to be a granuloma with transepidermal elimination of exogenous filamentous material. The relationship between foreign bodies and cutaneous neoplasia, genuine or simulated, is noted briefly.
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Unit, Kaplan Hospital, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frumkin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gorbacz
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lifschitz-Mercer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005153:Facial Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005549:Foreign-Body Reaction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013537:Sutures