BACKGROUND: Granuloma faciale is an uncommon disease of unknown etiology that is often misdiagnosed clinically and by general pathologists. OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinicopathological features of a series of patients with granuloma faciale. METHODS: Eleven patients diagnosed with granuloma faciale between 1990 and 2002 were included in the study. RESULTS: Granuloma faciale was diagnosed in 11 patients (9 male and 2 female, mean age 53.45 years). All of them presented facial cutaneous lesions and two of them also developed extrafacial lesions. Histologically, in 8 cases the infiltrate was limited to the upper half of the dermis. Two specimens showed fibrinoid necrosis. Concentric fibrosis around small blood vessels was demonstrated in 5 patients. CONCLUSION: The presence of abundant fibrosis in 5 of our patients similar to that observed in erythema elevatum diutinum suggests that granuloma faciale and erythema elevatum diutinum may be produced by similar or the same pathogenic mechanism.
BACKGROUND:Granuloma faciale is an uncommon disease of unknown etiology that is often misdiagnosed clinically and by general pathologists. OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinicopathological features of a series of patients with granuloma faciale. METHODS: Eleven patients diagnosed with granuloma faciale between 1990 and 2002 were included in the study. RESULTS:Granuloma faciale was diagnosed in 11 patients (9 male and 2 female, mean age 53.45 years). All of them presented facial cutaneous lesions and two of them also developed extrafacial lesions. Histologically, in 8 cases the infiltrate was limited to the upper half of the dermis. Two specimens showed fibrinoid necrosis. Concentric fibrosis around small blood vessels was demonstrated in 5 patients. CONCLUSION: The presence of abundant fibrosis in 5 of our patients similar to that observed in erythema elevatum diutinum suggests that granuloma faciale and erythema elevatum diutinum may be produced by similar or the same pathogenic mechanism.
Authors: Reena Jain; Jennifer V Robblee; Emerald O'Sullivan-Mejia; Jane Lea; Andrew Heller; William C Faquin; Celeste N Powers Journal: Head Neck Pathol Date: 2008-08-27