[Clinical and etiological aspects of erythema multiforme. A propos of 40 cases]

The authors analyse 40 cases of erythema multiforme (including twenty children under fifteen) seen over a five-year period at the Sick Children's Hospital in Bordeaux, Bullous erythematous target lesions of the skin were associated, in most cases, with pluri-orificial ulcerations on the mucous membranes and, less frequently, with more or less severe systemic or visceral symptoms. Borderline cases were observed, associating features of erythema multiforme simplex and of Lyell disease with variable degrees of dermoepidermal blistering and epidermal necrosis. Infection (32.5% of cases) is a more common etiology in children than in adults; the main pathogens are herpes simplex virus, vaccinia pox virus, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Drug-induced forms (37% of cases), which are more often seen in adults than in children, are usually due to sulfonamides or antiinflammatory agents. In 30% of cases, no etiology could be demonstrated. Attention is drawn to the frequency of facial vespertilial erythema, as well as the possible occurrence of severe conjunctival sequellae. The connections between erythema multiforme, fixed drug-induced eruptions, and Lyell disease are discussed: only the last, which implies dermoepidermal cleavage, can be categorized with erythema multiforme. The staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome, in which the epidermolysin of Staphylococcus aureus type II 71 is responsible for a superficial cleavage, proceeds from entirely different mechanisms and should be regarded as totally distinct from erythema multiforme.