Urinary Bladder "Melanosis": A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Melanosis of the urinary bladder, so-called melanosis vesicae, is a rare condition characterized by dark, velvety bladder mucosa observed by cystoscopy examination. Up to 20 examples have been reported in the English literature, and the etiology of this disease still needs to be discovered. We prese...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of surgical pathology Vol. 32; no. 1; p. 104
Main Authors Cao, Qi, Goldenberg, Mitchell, Aron, Manju, Wang, Tiannan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.02.2024
Subjects
lipofuscin
melanoma
melanocytes
melanosis
melanin
urinary bladder
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Summary:Melanosis of the urinary bladder, so-called melanosis vesicae, is a rare condition characterized by dark, velvety bladder mucosa observed by cystoscopy examination. Up to 20 examples have been reported in the English literature, and the etiology of this disease still needs to be discovered. We present an 82-year-old woman with a history of pelvic organ prolapse-associated urinary symptoms. The patient was found to have pigmented urinary bladder mucosa on cystoscopy and underwent a total hysterectomy and bladder mucosal biopsy. Histologically, pigmented granules were evident in the bladder stroma and epithelium, highlighted by Periodic Acid-Schiff (PAS) stain, suggestive of lipofuscin in nature. We outline the diagnostic features of bladder melanosis, discuss the diagnostic mimickers, and thoroughly review the literature on the subject.
ISSN:1940-2465
DOI:10.1177/10668969231166301