Dermatology: Practical and Conceptual


Image Letter  |  Dermatol Pract Concept 2020;10(4):2020093 1

Dermatology Practical & Conceptual

Case Presentation 

A 57-year-old woman presented to consultation complaining 

of the progressive appearance of skin lesions predominantly 

distributed in the lower limbs. The spontaneous occurrence 

of lesions began during adolescence, with continuous appear-

ance of new lesions to the present. The patient was otherwise 

healthy, and there was no previous history of trauma, autoim-

mune diseases, immunodeficiency or use of immunosuppres-

sive drugs. Cutaneous examination revealed firm brownish 

plaques and dome-shaped papules, ranging from 5 mm to 25 

mm in diameter, with positive lateral dimple sign. The total 

number of lesions counted was greater than 180. Dermoscopy 

was consistent with dermatofibroma in all lesions (Figure 1). 

Multiple Dermatofibromas on the Legs
Gabriel Salerni1,2, Carlos Alonso2

1 Dermatology Department, Hospital Provincial del Centenario de Rosario, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina

2 Diagnóstico Médico Oroño, Rosario, Argentina

Key words: dermatofibroma, fibrohistiocytoma, polarized light, imaging

Citation: Salerni G, Alonso G. Multiple dermatofibromas on the legs. Dermatol Pract Concept. 2020;10(4):e2020093. DOI: https://doi.
org/10.5826/dpc.1004a93

Accepted: May 25, 2020; Published: October 26, 2020

Copyright: ©2020 Salerni and Alonso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
License BY-NC-4.0, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original 
author and source are credited.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication.

Corresponding author: Gabriel Salerni, MD, PhD, Bv. Oroño 1441, CP 2000, Rosario, Argentina. Email: gabrielsalerni@hotmail.com 

Figure 1. Dermoscopy was consistent with dermatofibroma in all lesions.



2 Image Letter  |  Dermatol Pract Concept 2020;10(4):2020093

References

1. Her Y, Hyeon Ku S, Ho Kim K. A case of multiple eruptive der-

matofibromas in a healthy adult. Ann Dermatol. 2014;26(4):539–

540. DOI: 10.5021/ad.2014.26.4.539. PMID:  25143694.

2. An I, Devran Gevher O, Esen M, Ibiloğlu I, Ecer N. Multiple 
eruptive dermatofibromas in a patient with systemic lupus ery-

thematosus treated with methylprednisolone. Arch Rheumatol. 

2018;33(2):236–237. DOI: 10.5606/ArchRheumatol.2018.6569. 

PMID: 30207570.

Teaching Point

While solitary dermatofibromas may be incidental findings, 

multiple dermatofibromas may be associated with systemic 

conditions, such as autoimmune diseases, cancer, chromoso-

mal abnormalities, immunodeficiency, metabolic disorders; 

or previous therapies [1,2]. The presence of many dermatofi-

bromas in a patient without relevant associations, as in this 

case, is an even less frequent situation.