title: Cutaneous horns in an african population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cutaneous horns are hard, yellowish gray cornified skin growths. They are more common in white races and believed to be rare in Africans. There are few case reports of the lesion in African populations in the English literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  This report documents six patients with this lesion seen over a fourteen month period. There were three males and three females, aged 22 to 62 (mean= 47).
  
  
  RESULTS
  One lesion was on the scalp, the remaining on the extremities. The underlying pathologies were squamous cell carcinoma (1), Kaposi sarcoma (1), cutaneous myxoma (1), eccrine poroma (1) and the remaining two showed only chronic inflammatory changes with subepidermal lymphocytic and macrophage cell infiltrates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Unless cases are well documented, the perception of rarity in Africans will most likely persist. The risk of underling malignancy underscores the need for detailed evaluation and prompt management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Division of Plastic Surgery, College of Medical Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Olugbenga O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Oludiran
authors.forename: Victor J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Ekanem