Oral histoplasmosis in a patient infected with HIV. A case report.

Histoplasmosis is a frequent complication of HIV infection and is usually the result of reactivation. In the immunocompromised host, histoplasmosis may cause a chronic pulmonary infection or disseminated disease. In the setting of disseminated disease, oral lesions are present in 30% to 50% of patients and may occur in almost every part of the oral mucosa. The most common sites are the tongue, palate, and buccal mucosa. In some cases, oral lesions appear to be the primary or only manifestation of disease. We have been able to find only five case reports in the literature of histoplasmosis in HIV infection with oral lesions. In two of the cases, histoplasmosis was apparently localized to the oral cavity, whereas two cases also had evidence of disseminated disease, the fifth was undetermined. We report one such case of apparently localized oral histoplasmosis in a patient with HIV infection.