Isolated foot ulcer complicating acute leukemia: an unusual manifestation of herpes simplex virus infection simulating pyoderma gangrenosum
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Helen Lau1, Anselm C W Lee, S K Tang
1Department of Paediatrics, Tuen Mun Hospital, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
|November 25, 2003
Abstract:
An isolated foot ulcer developed in a child with newly diagnosed acute mixed lineage leukemia during induction chemotherapy. Despite its clinical resemblance to pyoderma gangrenosum, herpes simplex virus infection was eventually diagnosed on histopathology. Treatment with oral acyclovir was ineffective, but the ulcer healed with intravenous acyclovir followed by oral valaciclovir. Viral infection remains an unusual but important cause of isolated extragenital cutaneous ulceration in the immunocompromised child.
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