Infarcted Skin Tag-like Nevus (STRANGLED by Hair & String!) 5-Minute Pathology Pearls (video)

Sometimes patients tie thread, string, or even their own hair around the stalk of pedunculated lesions on their skin in hopes of strangling them and making them undergo necrosis and fall off. Sometimes this works, but other times the lesion gets painful and inflamed but doesn't fall off. Then the patient sees the dermatologist to have it biopsied. The patient may or may not relate the history of trying to strangle their lesion, but the savvy pathologist can usually tell, especially when the string/thread/hair is still present around the base of the lesion! This phenomenon is most often seen in acrochordon (skin tag) in my experience, but it may also be seen in pedunculated polypoid nevi, as this video demonstrates.