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Recalcitrant Verrucous Lesion

Verrucous Hyperplasia or Epithelioma Cuniculatum (Verrucous Carcinoma)

Shahrooz S. Kelishadi, MD ^*, Garrett A. Wirth, MD  and Gregory R. D. Evans, MD 

^* Department of General Surgery, University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery Institute, University of California at Irvine, Orange.

Corresponding author: Gregory R. D. Evans, MD, Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery Institute, University of California at Irvine, Manchester Pavilion, 200 S Manchester Ave, Ste 650, Orange, CA 92868-3298.

Abstract

A 37-year-old woman originally presented in May 2003 with a nonhealing, painless ulcer on the plantar surface of her right foot that had been slowly increasing in size for the previous 1.5 years. Two weeks before presentation, a biopsy of the lesion, performed at another institution, had indicated a probable verrucous carcinoma. After preoperative workup, the patient underwent resection of the lesion, with clear margins and full-thickness skin grafting. The final pathologic findings were not consistent with verrucous carcinoma. A recurrent lesion was noted during a follow-up visit, and a second biopsy revealed a hyperkeratotic papillomatous verrucous lesion, type unclassified. No viral particles were isolated in the random biopsy samples. This recurrent lesion was refractory to treatment with topical acyclovir. Subsequent treatments consisted of imiquimod and CO₂ laser ablation, which succeeded in reducing the lesion. Verrucous lesions can be frustrating, and the diagnosis of epithelioma cuniculatum can be difficult to prove. We report a case highly suggestive of but not definitively diagnosed as epithelioma cuniculatum and summarize the literature on this entity. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 96(2): 148–153, 2006)