Glomus tumour of the hand.

We report a series of 18 patients with pain in the thumb or finger tips who were diagnosed as having glomus tumour. Fourteen patients were found to have histopathologically proven glomus tumours, one had a neuroma and three had haemangioma. The duration of symptoms before treatment averaged 1.9 years. Cold-sensitivity and Hildreth's tests have sensitivities of 100% and 77.4% respectively and specificity of 100%. Love's pin test had a sensitivity of 100%. Love's and Hildreth's tests showed 78% accuracy, whereas the cold-sensitivity test was 100% accurate. We used a double-tourniquet technique during dissection and excision of the tumour. None of our patients experienced recurrence of symptoms during the post-operative follow up. Copyright 2002 The British Society for Surgery of the Hand.