MICROVENULAR HEMANGIOMA

A case of microvenular hemangioma in a 23-year-old Japanese female is described. The patient presented with a slowly growing, solitary reddi sh plague on her back, which measured 15 x 17 mm. Histologically, the tumor was an infiltrative growth throughout the dermis. It consisted o f thin-walled, small-sized, irregularly branched vascular vessels. The vascular lumina were narrow. The flattened endothelial cells had oval to spindle-shaped nuclei and scant cytoplasm that were immunohistoche mically positive for endothelial markers. The tumor cells lacked cellu lar atypia, pleomorphism, and mitotic figures. The patient was well wi thout disease 8 months after the excision. Pathologists and clinicians should be aware of the existence of this type of hemangioma with an i nfiltrative growth and avoid overdiagnosis and overtreatment.