Rare and unusual occurrence of ectopic hidradenoma papilliferum in maxillofacial region

Hidradenoma Papilliferum (HP) is a rare, benign, cutaneous adnexal tumor of middle‑aged females arising mainly in the apocrine sweat glands of perianal and genital region. Initially, HP was considered to be an apocrine sweat gland tumor however recent research showed that it descends from the anogenital mammary‑like glands, HP can be regarded theoretically as the cutaneous complement of mammary intraductal papilloma. Nongenital HP is an infrequent manifestation, ectopic forms of this entity have been defined with bulk of them occurring on the head and neck region (60%) and 85% of cases being 1.5 cm in the greatest diameter or lesser. Average age of patients with ectopic HP is 1–2 decades older than the age range of onset in patients with anogenital HP. Here, we present a 15‑year‑old adolescent female with an unusually large, ectopic occurrence of nodular HP on right cheek since 2 years.

Keywords: Adnexal tumor, anogenital mammary‑like glands, apocrine tumor, ectopic hidradenoma papilliferum, facial hidradenoma

Authors: Himanshu Chauhan, Parul Tandon, Ipshita Potlia, Ekta Jain