Two patients recently brought the entity of pyogenic granuloma to my attention.
A young man, 24 years of age, stated that he had had bleeding from his tongue for the past week. He had not noticed anything on his tongue until two weeks previously when he saw a small white nodule there. On examination, he showed a brownish-red mass about 8 mm. in diameter, attached to the midline of the tongue about one-third of the way back from the tip. When a snare was put around the mass, it appeared to have a thin stalk and was removed easily. The base was cauterized with a silver nitrate applicator.
The report from the laboratory stated that it was a pedunculated lesion covered by stratified squamous epithelium, with masses of endothelial cells containing many capillary spaces beneath the epithelium. Between the cellular masses were acute inflammatory cells with areas of loose basophilic