SCALP CYSTS
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I have recently had two separate patients with soft, lipomatous feeling 
cysts located on the scalp, just superior to the ear. Aspiration with an 
18 gauge needle yielded copious straw colored fluid which quickly gelled 
making cell counts and protein/glucose measurements impossible.  Are 
these varients of mucous cysts like those on the fingers?  

Jay Barnett
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Jay's cases sound vaguely like steatocytstoma multiplex, but supposedly that's 
autosomal dominant, multiple and not a solitary scalp lesion. My shoot from the 
hip guess would be that these cysts are benign, but you might want to remove 
them for diagnstic as well as therapeutic purposes if they recur. 

Mark Naylor, M.D.
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
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