Report of a nipple nevus and an overview of accessory mammary tissue

Supernumerary nipples, also known as accessory nipples, are the most freque ntly encountered congenital anomaly of the breast. Once associated with fer tility or divine powers, they are now widely held to be of cosmetic signifi cance only. During the past 20 years, however, there has been a steady numb er of articles reporting the suspected association of supernumerary nipples with numerous benign and malignant medical conditions. We describe a previ ously unreported accessory nipple variant occurring as a nevoid nodule surm ounting an otherwise normal primary nipple. The patient was otherwise healt hy. The embryogenesis of this anomaly is hypothesized to result from in ute ro nipple dichotomy, rather than a failure of regression along the embryoni c milk line.