Dupuytren’s Disease or Nodular Fasciitis in a Black African Child. The First Clinical and Histological Observation?

Abstract

We report the case of a 10-year-old child, African of black skin and free of any Caucasian genetic load, victim of a traumatism of the palm of the left hand. It was a fall to the palm of the hand, without wound or hematoma. This is followed a few months later by the appearance at the site of the trauma of a firm nodule, painful when locking the socket. Surgery was performed a year after the trauma, at the age of 11, a fibrous tumor was discovered, nodular mass, affecting the middle superficial palmar aponeurosis at the expense of the pretending bands. Surgical treatment had consisted of excision of the nodular fibrous tumor with the immediate aponeurotic environment. Histopathological analysis of the surgical specimen and immunohistochemical examination had confirmed Dupuytren's contracture (superficial palmar fibromatosis). We also mention in the differential diagnosis, the diagnostic of nodular fasciitis which is rare, but the most probable diagnosis in the absence of retraction and in the context of a trauma with a similar histology. This study is probably the first case report which showed that the Dupuytren's disease or nodular fasciitis exists in black African children, free of any Caucasian genetic load.