Herpetic whitlow during immunosuppressive therapy for Wegener's Granulomatosis

Skin involvement may occur in patients with Wegener's granulomatosis (polyangiitis with granulomatosis; WG) and is more frequent in the generalised form. However, when a patient with vasculitis develops digital ulceration, in addition to disease activation, other pathologies should be considered. One of them may be the herpetic whitlow mimicking paronychia. Here, we present a patient who developed herpetic whitlow during the course of immunosuppressive therapy due to WG. Just before the third course of cyclophosphamide therapy, she was re-admitted to the outpatient clinic with the above-mentioned ulcerated lesions. On physical examination, there was erythema and a painful, crusted ulceration in the distal phalanx of the right index finger involving the proximal nail fold. Similar lesions were also present in her lower lip. Due to the absence of clinical and laboratory findings suggesting the activation of WG and the Tzanck smear result, which is compatible with herpes virus infection, we do not believe that WG was responsible for our patient's complaints. All of the patient's lesions completely disappeared following the interruption of immunosuppressive therapy.