[Apropos of the nature of vegetating pyodermatitis on chronic leg ulcers. Study of 7 cases]

The pyodermatitis proliferation around or on chronic leg ulcers derived from bone infection or of varicose origin is rare. The author, who has only seen 7 cases over the last ten years, stresses the importance of making an aetiological diagnosis which often has to be based on repeated histological examinations. Two clinically similar features have, in fact, very different natures and prognoses: one, pseudoepitheliomatous pyodermatitis (5 cases), is only a benign inflammatory reaction which is easily cured by simple curetage; the other, spiny cell epithlioma (2 cases), requires wide excision, or even amputation of the limb.