These are usually caused by saprophytes like Alternaria sp. which are introduced by skin puncture such as fighting or thorns.
They form relatively pure granulomatous nodular inflammatory lesions in the skin which often are mistaken for neoplasms.
Aspiration is often very rewarding and intra and extra-cellular fungal hyphae (as above) or intracellular yeasts are identified in macrophages (as above). As can be seen, mitoses in florid inflammatory processes, do occur.
First published: Mon, Apr 4 2011