Café au lait spot

Café -au -lait spots ( from the French café au lait = " coffee with milk " ) are light brown, smooth skin patches of varying sizes that can occur all over the body in different numbers. Since this is a sharply circumscribed, benign skin lesion is ( nevus ), sometimes the term nevus Pigmentosus is used, but this should not be confused with the general umbrella term for pigmented nevi Pigmentnävus.

Appearance

Café -au -lait spots have a light to dark brown absolutely uniform pigmentation. Their size expansion can vary widely, from less than 2 mm to about 20 cm. In contrast to other pigmented nevi they are never raised or nodular and also do not go hand in hand with a hypertrichosis.

Importance

Café -au -lait spots have no clinical significance. 10-20% of the normal population have one or more of these homogeneous hyperpigmentation. A frequent occurrence is described in vitamin B12 deficiency, neurofibromatosis ( Recklinghausen 's disease ) and the McCune -Albright syndrome ( fibrous dysplasia). From six café -au -lait spots whose diameters are larger than 15 mm in adults or greater than 5 mm in childhood and adolescence, and the occurrence of other symptoms, the diagnosis of neurofibromatosis type 1 is likely. This café -au -lait spots are typically smooth ( Coast of California ) as they appear in the McCune - Albright irregular borders syndrome ( Coast of Maine or Coast of Massachusetts).