Linear Arrangement of Multiple Deep Penetrating Nevi: Report of First Case and Review of Literature

BACKGROUND Deep penetrating nevus is a recently described variant of melanocytic nevi with clinical and histopathological features that may be confused with malignant melanoma, blue nevus, pigmented Spitz nevus, or congenital melanocytic nevus. We report a case with linear arrangement of multiple deep penetrating nevi. To our knowledge, such presentation has never been reported in the literature. OBSERVATIONS We describe a patient with multiple darkly pigmented lesions in the right periauricular area, above and behind the ear. The histopathological features of these lesions were consistent with deep penetrating nevus. CONCLUSIONS To our knowledge, this is the first report of linear arrangement of multiple deep penetrating nevi. We consider this case a unique presentation of deep penetrating nevus.Arch Dermatol. 2003;139:1608-1610-->