In a message dated 6/19/00 2:32:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Dusti.Barham@tulsa.cistech.com writes:
> Hi Susan, I have a question: What is a nevus?
>
> Regards,
> Dusti
>
Hi, Dusti! A nevus is basically a mole. Aaron was born with a large
congenital nevus. This means that his nevus is larger than 10cm - it was
about 20 inches at birth. It covered his back, shoulders and up the back of
his neck. The nevus can be made up of lots of different moles or just be a
mole. Aaron's has lots of different colored moles on/in the large nevus,
plus smaller ones all over his body - these are called satellites. The risk
of melanoma is higher than a person without a nevus and he has to wear
sunscreen all the time and doesn't go out in the sun without a shirt on. The
nevus is skin deep and many of the kids are born with melanin deposits on the
brain -this is called Neurocutaneous Melanosis. This can cause seizures or
hydrocephalus or both plus developmental delays. It can also cause death. I
know of 3 children who've passed away in the last 2 years, all under age 3.
Aaron's never had an MRI to determine if he has the deposits as he has no
symptoms and is a healthy 11 years of age.
I probably over-answered your question, didn't I? :) Sorry, I tend to get
woundup when talking about it. Aaron was lucky enough to meet a major league
baseball player earlier this month who had a nevus on his face. I think it
made Aaron's year!
Susan
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