Sweet's syndrome: a study of 23 cases

Sweet's syndrome or acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis is a rare disease characterized by painful violaceous erythematous skin lesions, fever, neutrophilic leukocytosis and dense dermal neutrophilic inflammatory infiltrate. It shows excellent response to corticosteroids.

To assess cases of Sweet's syndrome in a university hospital, identifying its clinical, laboratory and epidemiological characteristics and compare them with the data found on the literature.

We conducted a retrospective epidemiological study by examining the medical records of 23 patients who met the diagnostic criteria for the disease from March 1995 to July 2009. We collected clinical and epidemiological data on the patients, such as lesion location, presence of cutaneous and extracutaneous manifestations, conditions associated with SS and some laboratory data, such as leukocyte count and ESR.

The age of the patients in the study ranged from 2 to 75 years. There were more females. The lesions mostly affected the trunk and upper limbs. Fever was the most common systemic manifestation, followed by arthralgia and myalgia, conjunctivitis and arthritis. The triggering factors most commonly identified were infections of the respiratory tract. Associated neoplasia occurred in 30% of the patients, especially hematologic neoplasia.

The clinical and epidemiological data found in our study are mostly similar to those found in the literature. Given the high prevalence of malignant diseases in patients with Sweet's syndrome, it is necessary to know how to perform the diagnosis, carry out a full investigation as well as do the patient's follow up.