Brown Patches on Body

[helpseeker]

Hi forumers,

above link shows brown patches on near my stomach. It start to grow ever since i'm in primary school.

1. It is not itchy.
2. it seems to stick on my skin. isn't rough at all.

What is this brown patches call?Is there any medication for this? or maybe ways to remove this?

Please help me.. Ever since i got this brown patches, i do not dare to remove my shirt in public places like swimming pool and beaches. I love swimming a lot. but due to this..i stopped swimming for years..

Your help and information is greatly appreciated.

regards.

[Dr.Deepak]

Well.... it looks like Café au lait macule, can you give me some more details ?
Your age,race, was it during birth ? does any of your family have this ? any of your family have any endocrine disease or any inherited disease... ? do you have these spots on other parts of your body.. ? Do you have any other associated disease presently or had in the past..? have you consulted your doctor about this already...??

Sorry for asking so many questions.. please reply if you feel comfortable..

Thanks

[helpseeker]

Well.... it looks like Café au lait macule, can you give me some more details ?
Your age,race, was it during birth ? does any of your family have this ? any of your family have any endocrine disease or any inherited disease... ? do you have these spots on other parts of your body.. ? Do you have any other associated disease presently or had in the past..? have you consulted your doctor about this already...??

Sorry for asking so many questions.. please reply if you feel comfortable..

Thanks

Thanks for your reply Deekpak

Q:Your age,race
Ans: 17, Male - Chinese

Q:was it during birth ?
Ans: No. It started when i'm about 8yrs old. (Was quite fat at that time)

Q:does any of your family have this ?
Ans: Nope. non of my family member has this.

Q:any of your family have any endocrine disease or any inherited disease
Ans: Nope, no endocrine disease or inherited disease.

Q:do you have these spots on other parts of your body.. ?
Ans: Only on my stomach. No other spots on other parts of my body.

Qo you have any other associated disease presently or had in the past..?
Ans: Nope too.

Q:have you consulted your doctor about this already...??
Ans: yet to. =/

[Dr.Deepak]

Ok thanks. So now we have two options to consider....

Baker's nevi( Becker melanosis) and Café au lait macule.

So as your history suggest no any other abnormalities so it might just be Baker's nevi. Café au lait macule usually associated with genetic disorders, most often associated with neurofibromatosis type 1.

So what i would suggest is to visit a dermatologist so he can confirm the diagnosis, and carry out some pathology test to see the Histologic changes. Your case is less seen, as usually with Baker's nevi, it is associated with hair growing within a patch, but your picture shows no hair grown within the patch. So it may further needs to be confirmed.

In any of the two cases, treatment is usually not required ( until and unless it is associated with other disease ) and does not possess any life threatning risk. If required it can be treated with several lasers like pulse dye lasers, Nd:YAG lasers, Q-switched ruby laser and CO2 lasers. Please consult your dermatologist for the treatment options.

Thank you, if you have any other questions regarding this, feel free to ask.

[helpseeker]

Ok thanks. So now we have two options to consider....

Baker's nevi( Becker melanosis) and Café au lait macule.

So as your history suggest no any other abnormalities so it might just be Baker's nevi. Café au lait macule usually associated with genetic disorders, most often associated with neurofibromatosis type 1.

So what i would suggest is to visit a dermatologist so he can confirm the diagnosis, and carry out some pathology test to see the Histologic changes. Your case is less seen, as usually with Baker's nevi, it is associated with hair growing within a patch, but your picture shows no hair grown within the patch. So it may further needs to be confirmed.

In any of the two cases, treatment is usually not required ( until and unless it is associated with other disease ) and does not possess any life threatning risk. If required it can be treated with several lasers like pulse dye lasers, Nd:YAG lasers, Q-switched ruby laser and CO2 lasers. Please consult your dermatologist for the treatment options.

Thank you, if you have any other questions regarding this, feel free to ask.

Good day Deepak! Again, thanks for your reply. Googled both options that u listed. Quite agree that Café au lait macule is unlikely.

As for Baker's nevi( Becker melanosis), i have those tiny hairs on the black patch itself. wonder if thats what u mean.

Glad to hear that both options does not possesses any life threatening. Real sad that i'm not able to swim in public because of that
Will seek help from dermatologist when i've save up enough $. Fees usually quite expensive. Just wondering if there is any "ways" i can do myself to lighten it?

Loads of thanks Deepak.

Regards~

[Dr.Deepak]

Now thats even closer to Becker melanosis if you have tiny hair. There are no any options beside laser. I'll try to find it if there are any good options. Do visit the dermatologist, he might give you some better options.