Proliferative fasciitis. A variant of nodular fasciitis.

The clinical and pathologic features of eight cases of proliferative fasciitis, a variant of nodular fasciitis, were described. The lesion affected adults older than 51 years of age. It involved various parts of the body and grew rapidly in most cases. Follow-up information, however, revealed that the patients took a benign clinical course after a local excision. Microscopically a diffuse proliferation of fibroblastic cells intermingled with a number of large basophilic cells resembling ganglion cells was characteristic, and was accompanied by slight lymphocytic infiltration and by slight fibrinous exudation and hemorrhage. The large basophilic cells seemed to be metamorphosed from cells of fibroblastic series.