Venous hemangioma. An immunohistochemical and ultrastructural study.

We present a case of (arterio) venous hemangioma of 15 years' duration, which arose in a 43-year-old Japanese man on his right infraorbital area. Elastic stain and electron microscopy did not show any evidence for arterial components. Some thick-walled vessels showed mucin deposition and wide intercellular spaces between smooth muscle cells. Several glomoid cells were encountered among these cells. Although the histogenesis of (arterio) venous hemangioma is controversial, the presence of glomoid cells and the mucin deposition, which is occasionally detected in glomus tumors, suggest the relation of this tumor to the Suquet-Hoyer canal.