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Nevi and Malignant Melanoma

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Fundamentals of Pediatric Surgery

Abstract

Childhood nevi, whether acquired or congenital, pose a particular diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for the pediatric surgeon. Fueled by the fear of potential malignant transformation, many surgeons are now being asked to evaluate and surgically remove moles and other skin lesions at increasingly higher rates. Despite the heightened awareness of the increasing incidence of pediatric melanoma, diagnosis and management in this population can still be challenging given the disease’s variable presentation and behavior. Furthermore, there are a number of benign skin lesions common in childhood that can be easily confused with melanoma or act as precursors to malignancy. A thorough understanding of the characteristics of both benign and malignant skin lesions of childhood is thus essential to a practicing pediatric surgeon.

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Correspondence to Ahmed M. Afifi .

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Farmer, R.L., Afifi, A.M. (2017). Nevi and Malignant Melanoma. In: Mattei, P., Nichol, P., Rollins, II, M., Muratore, C. (eds) Fundamentals of Pediatric Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27443-0_107

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27443-0_107

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27441-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27443-0

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