Coccygeal glomus tumors: a case of mistaken identity?

We undertook an anatomical and histological study to differentiate glomus-cell tumors of the pericoccygeal tissues from the normal coccygeal body. Removal of the coccyx was performed on five consecutive autopsy specimens from patients with no history of coccygeal symptoms. In each specimen, the coccygeal body (glomus coccygeum) was identified grossly and histologically. The histological appearance was indistinguishable from that of photomicrographs published in case reports of patients with glomus tumors of the coccyx. It is likely that the so-called tumors reported previously were in actuality normal glomus bodies.