L. Kunde, M. Wade, A. Cymerman
Giant cutaneous horns have long been a matter of fascina-tion to not only dermatologists but to the layman. They arerelatively uncommon lesions, particularly in developedcountries. Otherwise known by the Latin name of “CornuCutaneoum” they resemble the horn of an animal and areseldom left to grow to any substantiate length.
Presented is the case of a 95 year old Caucasian Britishfemale who presented to Queens Hospital, London with agiant cutaneous horn growing from her right axilla measur-ing 30 cm in length. The patient lived independently but dueto her mild dementia she was unable to give a detailed historyof the horn’s growth. The first confirmed sighting of the hornwas in 1963 by the patient’s daughter-in-law. The histologicalexamination of the specimen revealed that it was a verrucoussquamous cell carcinoma arising within a seborrhoeic ker-atosis. This case is unusual not only due to the size of thehorn but also due to the site with cutaneous horns more com-monly presenting on chronically photo-exposed areas.
The case with clinical photos and histology along with areview of the literature published on giant cutaneoushorns will be presented for discussion.