[The acrolentiginous melanoma: how to recognise and when to refer?].

In Caucasians, the acrolentiginous melanoma is a rare type of melanoma and may appear on hands, feet and subungually. It has the worst prognosis of all melanomas, due to the high rate of misdiagnosis. In 30% of the patients, it presents amelanotic and may resemble for example a common wart, paronychia, ulceration or mycosis. We present 4 patients, aged 48 years and older, in whom an acrolentiginous melanoma was contemplated. One of the lesions was highly suspected of a subungual acrolentiginous melanoma, because of the presence of Hutchinson's sign. Another lesion presented amelanotic and mimicked a foot ulcer. Acrolentiginous melanoma should be considered in case of uncertain diagnosis, delay in healing, enlargement of the lesion and when a pigmented lesion is larger than 7 mm. In these situations, early histopathological examination should be performed.