Granulomatous vasculitis occurring after cutaneous herpes zoster despite absence of viral genome.

Granuloma annulare, sarcoidal and other granulomatous dermatitides, pseudolymphoma, lymphoplasmacytoid lymphoma, and Kaposi's sarcoma have been described as sequelae of herpes zoster. We report a new postzoster reaction, granulomatous vasculitis, that caused flat-topped papules restricted to the affected dermatome. Polymerase chain reaction failed to detect varicella-zoster virus in a biopsy specimen. These results suggest that granulomatous vasculitis occurs without persistence of the viral genome and, perhaps, is a reaction to minute amounts of viral proteins.