Salmon patch Q82.5

Mostly congenital, harmless, merely cosmetically disturbing, capillary malformation without any tendency to vascular proliferation, as observed in asymmetrical vascular hamartomas (naevus flammeus). There are no known syndromal associations with other vascular organ malformations in fissural vascular hamartomas. These patches also do not represent cutaneous mosaics in the sense of post-zygotic mutations.

Unna spots occur in up to 40-50% of newborns. Turkoglu Z et al. (2010) observed Unna spots in the forehead area over 3 generations.

It is probably a circumscribed maturation delay of the sympathetic vascular innervation and not a postzygotic mutation (a cutaneous genetic mosaic is therefore excluded), as is the case, for example, with lateralized, asymmetric nevus flammeus (mutation in GNAQ/GNA11).

The symmetrical vascular malformations occurring in the median line (no hamartomas of the skin) are mainly localized in the area of the embryonic closure ridges (fissural vascular malformations), e.g. on the neck (stork bite), middle of the forehead or glabella (angel kiss or salmon spot), on the upper eyelids and wings of the nose.

Light red or dull red, 0.5-10.0 cm large, bizarrely bordered, inhomogeneous spots.

Particularly described are:

• the Unna-Politzer neck nevus
• and
• the salmon spot in the middle of the forehead (stork bite).

The Unna-Politzer neck nevus often does not regress - in contrast to the salmon spot in the middle of the forehead, which is usually capable of regression.

Treatment is not necessary for medical reasons. The skin changes are usually not cosmetically disturbing.

For cosmetic therapy indication: see below. Nevus flammeus.

Favorable, no progression, tendency to regress during infancy. They are therefore referred to as ′′fading macular stains".

No tubero-nodular transformation as in lateralized nevus flammeus which is the cutaneous hallmark of Sturge-Weber-Krabbe syndrome.

1. Csoma Z et al. (2014) Birth marks and neonatal skin disorders. From angel kiss to epidermolysis bullosa]. Orv Hetil 155:500-508
2. Merlob P et al. (1985) Familial nevus flammeus of the forehead and Unna's nevus. Clin Genet 27:165-166.
3. Turkoglu Z et al. (2010) Angel's kiss in three generations. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 76:592.