Glomus Tumor in Upper Extremity; Reporting 20 Cases in 21 Years of Experience with this Tumor

Introduction &

Glomus tumor is a rare benign lesion of the skin and subcutaneous tissue arising from glomus apparatus and accounts for 1.6% of soft tissue tumors that is mainly located in upper extremities and especially in finger and thumb tips. The tumor is clinically characterized by a triad of pain, point tenderness and cold sensitivity. The aim of this study was the evaluation of glomus tumor in upper extremity and reporting 20 cases of them.

In a case series study we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 20 patients with glomus tumor who had been treated with surgical excision at our hospital between the years of 1988 and 2009.

Twenty patients with mean age of 41 years and a 6- year follow -up were entered in the study. Five of the patients were male and the remaining 15 were female. The main complaints were pain, tenderness and cold intolerance. “Love’s test” was positive in all of the patients. The location of tumor was at the tip of the digits in 19 patients and the right side was involved in 15 patients. The average size of tumor was2.85 mm but there was an unusual case of tumor with the dimensions of 10 mm by 10mm on the forearm.

The glomus tumor should be considered in differential diagnosis of any painful lesion at the tip of fingers even though it is a rare tumor. Since the glomus tumor can occur in greater dimensions and unusual locations, it should also be considered in differential diagnosis of a large painful mass at forearm.