title: Primary malignant melanoma of the anorectum: case report.
abstract: A thirty year old Nigerian female presented with a large and advanced anorectal malignant melanoma. She had been treated for over eighteen months at a rural hospital for a mistaken diagnosis of haemorrhoids. The patient died before any form of treatment could be carried out. The rarity of this disease in the black Africa is highlighted and the characteristics of the disease briefly reviewed. The importance of digital and protoscopic rectal examination in patients bleeding per rectum is emphasised.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ameh
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Shehu
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Nmadu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006484:Hemorrhoids / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology*; D009549:Nigeria; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*