Superficial lesions Flashcards
(91 cards)
What is a lipoma?
Benign tumour of mature fat cells
Do lipomas undergo malignant change?
No, or very rarely.
Liposarcomas arise de novo
How to treat a lipoma?
- watch and wait
- remove if patient choice, painful, bad cosmesis.
- need to remove capsule or recurs?
Lipomas variants
- angiolipomas: prominent vasc component
- hibernomas: brown fat cells
- Bannayan-Zonana syndrome: multiple lipomas, macrocephaly, haemangiomas
Dercum’s disease
aka Adiposis dolorosa: multiple painful lipomas associated with peripheral neuropathy
Liposarcoma classficiation
1 - well-differentiated
2 - myxoid and round cell (poor-dif)
3 - pleomorphic
What are the complications of a sebaceous cyst?
- infection
- ulceration
- calcification (trichilemmal cyst)
- sebaceous horn formation
- malignant change
Sebaceous cyst treatment
- watch and wait if small, asymptomatic
- elliptical skin excision including capsule to prevent recurrence
Different histological subtypes of sebaceous cyst?
- Epidermal: from infundibular portion of hair follicles
- Trichilemmal: from hair follicle epithelium, more common on scalp
Gardner’s syndrome
- multiple epidermal cysts
- adenomatous polyposis of colon
- multiple skull osteomata
- desmoid tumours
What is a ganglion?
Cystic swelling related to a synovial lined cavity (joint or tendon sheath).
Ganglion differential
- bursae
- cystic protrusions from arthritic joints
- benign giant cell tumours of flexor sheath
- rarely, malignant e.g. synovial sarcoma
Ganglion treatment
- watch and wait
- aspiration + 3 weeks immobilisation
- complete excision including neck at origin
Complications of surgical ganglion treatment
- wound complications e.g. scar, haematoma, infection
- recurrence
- damage to adjacent neurovascular structures
Neck triangle borders
- anterior: anterior border of sternocleidomastoid, midline, ramus of mandible
- posterior: anterior border of trapezius, clavicle, posterior border of sternocleidomastoid
Midline neck lumps DDx
- Solid: thyroid swelling
- Cystic: thyroglossal cyst
Anterior triangle lump DDx
- solid: lymphadenopathy or carotid chemodectoma
- cystic: branchial cyst, cold abscess (TB)
Posterior triangle lump DDx
- solid: lymphadenopathy
- cystic: pharyngeal pouch or cystic hygroma
What is a sternomastoid tumour?
an ischaemic contracture of a segment of muscle seen in first 1-2 weeks of life following complicated birth. Usually resolves over 4-6 months
Cervical lymphadenopathy causes
L - lymphoma, leukaemia
I - infection (tonsillitis, TB, CMV, EBV, HIV)
S - sarcoidosis
T - tumours, primary + secondary
Cervical lymphadenopathy investigations
Bloods - FBC, ESR, TFTs, ACE, monospot/paul-bunnell
Radiological - USS, CT, MRI
Histological - FNAC, excision biopsy
Cervical lymphadenopathy FNAC results
- if SCC or TB, don’t perform excision biopsy
- if adenocarcinoma, lymphoma or other infection/inflammatory cause, do excision biopsy
What is the arterial supply to thyroid gland?
- superior thyroid artery from external carotid
- inferior thyroid artery from thyrocervical trunk from subclavian artery
- these two anastamose behind the thyroid gland
What do you know about solitary thyroid nodules?
- F:M = 4:1
- commonest 40s-50s
- 10% malignant in middle-aged
- 50% malignant in young and elderly
- FNAC most important investigation