MULTIPLE PAINFUL AND PAINLESS GLOMUS TUMORS

The classification of the glomus tumor among the painful tumors was secure until Weidman and Wise 1 in 1937 described a woman having forty-eight painless glomus tumors. This report is prompted by their observations and presents the picture of a patient with twelve such painless tumors associated with two typically painful lesions. The finding of multiple glomus tumors is indeed rare, but the occurrence of multiple painful and painless glomus tumors in the same patient is unusual enough to warrant a report. Masson 2 in 1924 described a vascular tumor made up of a tangled mass of arterioles, the walls of which had epithelioid and smooth muscle cells peculiarly arranged about the lumen. He further noted a large number of unmyelinated nerves which were directly continuous with the cytoplasm of the epithelioid cells. To this structure he gave the name ``neuro-myo-arterial glomus.'' Three varieties were described, depending on