We undertook an anatomical and histological study to differentiate
glomus-cell tumors of the pericoccygeal tissues from the normal coccygeal
body. Removal of the coccyx was performed on five consecutive autopsy
specimens from patients with no history of coccygeal symptoms. In each
specimen, the coccygeal body (glomus coccygeum) was identified grossly and
histologically. The histological appearance was indistinguishable from that
of photomicrographs published in case reports of patients with glomus
tumors of the coccyx. It is likely that the so-called tumors reported
previously were in actuality normal glomus bodies.