CLINICAL REVIEW OF 247 CASE RECORDS OF SPITZ NEVUS (EPITHELIOID CELL AND OR SPINDLE-CELL NEVUS)/

Background: Spitz nevus has clinically been described as a dome-shaped usually nonpigmented papular or nodular lesion variable in color from pink to red. Objectives: To give an exhaustive description of the cli nical features of the Spitz nevus from a large series of 247 patients. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the clinical features of 247 Spi tz nevi excised from 1974 to 1993 has been performed. We evaluated the following features: age, sex, anatomical location, clinical and histo pathologic features; descriptive statistics were calculated and relati onships among the above variables were assessed. Results: Most lesions were pigmented (71.7%), located on the lower extremities (43.3%), mor e frequent in the first decade (55.8%) and in females (57.9%), The non pigmented type was more frequent in the head or neck region, whereas t he pigmented types were more frequent on the lower extremities. Beside s, these types showed different histopathologic features: the spindle cells usually predominated in the flat pigmented type, whereas dome-sh aped types were usually composed of both spindle and epithelioid cells . Conclusions: In our patients, the pigmented Spitz nevi were more com mon than the nonpigmented ones; furthermore pigmented and nonpigmented Spitz nevi showed different anatomical locations and different histop athologic features.