Clinicopathologic Manifestations of Patients with Fordyce's Spots

Abstract

In 1896, Fordyce 1 described whitish spots on the vermilion border of the lips, oral mucosa and, rarely, genital mucosa. Fordyce's spots are ectopically located sebaceous glands 1-4 . To date, few reports have been published to describe the clinicopathologic study of Fordyce's spots in the Korean population. We herein review the clinicopathologic characteristics of Korean patients with Fordyce's spots. Data were collected retrospectively from the medical records of patients diagnosed with Fordyce's spots between January 2000 and December 2009 in the Department of Dermatology of 4 medical centers in Korea. We reviewed biopsy slides, treatment regimens, and other relevant information. Sixteen patients were finally enrolled in this study. All patients were confirmed with Fordyce's spots following biopsy. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Catholic University of Korea. Distribution of the patients' age, sex, incubation period, symptoms, signs, anatomical locations, and treatment were evaluated. Histopathologically, the morphology of Fordyce's spots, distribution, and existence of sebaceous ducts-whether they opened onto the skin surface or not-were investigated.