The Local Recurrence of Pigmented Spitz Nevus after Removal

Abstract

A seventeen-month-old female had a pigmented nodule on her left lower leg. The excised lesion was histologically diagnosed as a Spitz nevus, composed mainly of spindle-shaped melanocytes containing large amounts of melanin pigment. When nodular regrowth was seen at the operative site, the recurrent lesion was radically excised as nodular melanoma. However the histological characteristics of the second excised specimen were essentially the same as those in the initially excised one except for the existence of the newly formed collagen fibers, which may suggest an involuting stage in the central portion of the lesion.