[Malignant pilomatrixoma of the face].

The authors report a case of malignant pilomatricoma of the right preauricular region in a 66 year old woman. This is a rare neoplasm and only 36 cases have been reported in the literature: 10 in the cervical-facial region and 15 of the scalp. There are problems in differential diagnosis with benign pilomatricoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, parotid masses and the initial stages of cutaneous and subcutaneous cysts. Diagnosis of malignant pilomatricoma is essentially histological. It has a low degree of malignancy but tends to recur after surgery and to metastasize even leading to death. Treatment of choice is a broad surgical excision followed by periodic check-ups. Such exeresis was performed in the case presented and the patient is alive and in good health 67 months after surgery.