Use of Otoscope as a Non-invasive Tool for Diagnosis of Pilomatricoma

Pilomatricoma is a benign tumor that presents as a 3-30mm firm, solitary, deep dermal or subcutaneous tumor on the head, neck, or upper extremities. The clinical diagnosis is often made by the firm, sometimes rock hard texture of the skin. The diagnosis can be confirmed by a skin biopsy and/or excision of the lesion. We have recently noted that pilomatricomas appear as a black mass in the skin when the lesion is transilluminated by placing the light of a fiberoptic otoscope adjacent to the skin lesion. We would like to confirm our impression by a prospective study using transillumination to examine subcutaneous tumors in the skin. Pilomatricoma is also known as a benign calcifying or calcified epithelioma, pilomatrixoma, or a calcifying epithelioma of Malherbe.