What is the clinical utility of histological diagnosis between pilomatricoma and trichilemmal cyst in children?

Pilomatricoma and trichilemmal cyst are two benign tumors of hair follicles that can affect children. We performed a retrospective study to histologically differentiate the two tumors to determine if this has clinical utility. For 5 years, we conducted a retrospective study on the patients who underwent surgery and evaluated some parameters (site, recurrence and scar outcome) categorizing them based on their histological type. We treated 71 patients, with an average age of 7.6 years. Most of the lesions were localized on the scalp, head and neck. Histological examination diagnosed 55 pilomatricomas and 16 trichilemmal cysts. Five patients with pilomatricoma developed an unaesthetic scar (4 in subscapular region), while the recurrence was present in 10 cases, of which 6 were trichilemmal cysts (37,5% of 16 cases). Both types of lesions healed successfully, however trichilemmal cysts are more susceptible to recurrence.