Tuyển tập báo cáo các nghiên cứu khoa học quốc tế ngành y học dành cho các bạn tham khảo đề tài: Relearning the lesson – amelanotic malignant melanoma: a case report | Journal of Medical Case Reports BioMed Central Case report Open Access Relearning the lesson - amelanotic malignant melanoma a case report Ezekiel Oburu and Alberto Gregori Address Department of Orthopaedics Hairmyres Hospital East Kilbride G75 8RG UK Email Ezekiel Oburu - oburue@ Alberto Gregori - gregoribub@ Corresponding author Published 31 January 2008 Received 29 March 2007 Journal of Medical Case Reports 2008 2 31 doi 1752-1947-2-3 I Accepted 31 January 2008 This article is available from http content 2 1 31 2008 Oburu and Gregori licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Although not as common as the other melanomas amelanotic melanoma often evades diagnosis by masquerading as other pathology. A high index of suspicion is therefore required for early and appropriate intervention. We present a patient who was diagnosed and managed as having paronychia of the middle finger while in actual fact he had a subungual amelanotic melanoma. By the time of his referral to the orthopaedic team it had progressed to an advanced stage. Our case underlies the importance of early recognition and referral of this rare but malignant lesion by primary care physicians. Background With malignant melanoma early diagnosis is vital. Amelanotic malignant melanoma often presents in unusual ways often evading early diagnosis resulting in a poorer prognosis. Differential diagnosis can include paronychia pyogenic granuloma glomus tumor and subungual haematoma. Our case highlights that any persistent ulcer adjacent or below the nail not responsive to treatment should raise suspicion. Case presentation A 55 year old male presented with a 10 month old painless ulcer of the left .
