Clinical and Dermoscopic Features of Lichenoid Keratosis: A Retrospective Case Study

BACKGROUND: Lichenoid keratosis is a benign cutaneous lesion exhibiting many clinical faces and different dermoscopic features. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the pattern of different clinical subtypes of lichenoid keratosis and to establish whether there is any correlation between the clinical variants of lichenoid keratosis and their dermoscopic appearance. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records and clinical database of patients who had received a histological diagnosis of lichenoid keratosis. Based on the literature review and the clinical-dermoscopic features of lichenoid keratosis, we divided the lesions into 6 clinical subtypes to evaluate potential correlations between clinical and dermoscopic features in all subtypes. RESULTS: Fifty-one lesions were included in this clinical study. Preoperatively, only 1.9% of cases were clinically diagnosed as lichenoid keratosis, and the most common misdiagnosis was basal cell carcinoma (52.9%). We identified 6 subtypes of lichenoid keratosis and their corresponding dermoscopic features and clues. CONCLUSION: Since lichenoid keratosis has no pathognomonic dermoscopic clues and it is commonly misdiagnosed as malignant skin neoplasms, such as basal cell carcinoma and melanoma, improving the knowledge of both clinical and dermoscopic variability of lichenoid keratosis may help dermatologists to reduce unnecessary surgery and to reduce health care spending.