Morbihan disease.

Dec 2012

Hu SW, Robinson M, Meehan SA, Cohen DE.

Source

The Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology, New York University School of Medicine.

Abstract

Morbihan disease, which consists of solid facial edema, is a rare complication of rosacea, a common cutaneous disorder in middle-aged individuals. The characteristic features of Morbihan disease are its chronic course, typical clinical picture, lack of specific laboratory and histopathologic findings, and refractoriness to therapeutic measures. Since its initial description in 1957, only a small number of cases have been reported in the dermatologic literature. We report a 54-year-old man who developed a two-year duration of erythema and edema that affects the upper and mid face, with accentuation in the periorbital region. Patch tests excluded an allergic contact dermatitis and histopathologic investigation showed small, nodular clusters of epithelioid cells in the dermis that were consistent with sarcoidal granulomata. A diagnosis of Morbihan disease was made owing to the combination of clinical and histopathologic findings. Therapeutic options for the disease remain unsatisfactory and treatments reported in the literature include systemic glucocorticoids, oral tetracyclines, thalidomide, isotretinoin, ketotifen, and clofazimine. Our patient failed a six-to-seven months course of minocycline prior to presentation and has since experienced improvement on gradually-increasing doses of isotretinoin.

PubMed