Sweet's syndrome in a child

Abstract

An unusual case of Sweet's syndrome occurring in a child is presented. Since Sweet described the distinctive syndrome of obscure etiology in 1964, many cases have been reported from all over the world, including a large series of 18 cases from tropics (Gunawardena et al,1975). So far only one case has been reported from Africa (Jacyk and Subbuswamy, 1978). A wide spectrum of manifestations are recognised of which the most characteristic of the syndrome is appearance of sharply inarginated dusky red plaques histologically marked by a dense polymorphonuclear leucocytic infiltrate in the dermis without vasculitis. In more than 50 cases that had been so far reported, the disorder was confined to adults and this is the first report in a child. I.T., a two year old female child was brought to the dermatology clinic with a complaint of painful raised plaques on the face. The skin lesions appeared for the first time two weeks earlier and had been rapidly advancing at the edge. Her general health had been unaffected and there had been no illness preceding the onset of skin lesions. At the time of examination she had three large plaques on her face, one on the forehead and one on each cheek (Figs. 1 & 2).