Melanoacanthoma of External Ear: Report of Two Cases
A fifty year old female presented with slow growing, non pruritic, elevated and solid pigmented growth 1.5 × 1 cm over the external ear noticed since last 1 year. Her general physical and systemic examination was within normal limits. The lesion was clinically suspected as melanoma. The histopathology of the excised specimen showed stratified squamous epithelium of the epidermis along with the elevated lesion with hyperkeratosis, acanthosis and papillomatosis. The spinous layer showed presence of round to oval cells and abundant brownish black pigment (melanin). In addition many horn cysts (both true and pseudo) were seen. There was no invasion of the surrounding tissue, lack of cellular atypia and infrequent mitoses. The dermis was unremarkable and a piece of cartilage of the concha was seen beneath it [Figures and ].\nThe second case was a 53 years old male who presented with similar type of pigmented lesion of 1 × 1 cm over external ear for past 1 and half year. Histopathologically there was presence of abundant melanin pigment containing cells in the spinous layer as seen in the previous case. In addition there were squamous eddies. Because of the clinical suspicion of malignancy and inadequate nature of the biopsy, repeat biopsy was advised. The second biopsy showed characteristic features of melanoacanthoma with adjacent normal epidermis. After 4 years of the initial diagnosis these 2 patients did not report any recurrence of the lesion.