Bullous Sweet’s syndrome in a patient with ulcerative colitis: a rare case report

Abstract

Bullous Sweet's syndrome is an uncommon clinical presentation of classical Sweet's syndrome, often associated with various kinds of tumors, infections, and active inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), namely Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Only a few cases of bullous Sweet's syndrome associated with ulcerative colitis are described in the literature. We report a case of a 62-year-old female patient with acute exacerbation of ulcerative colitis associated with infiltrating purple-erythematous skin plaques, which were partly vesicular, and oral ulcerative stomatitis. Biopsy was consistent with bullous Sweet's syndrome. Treatment with betamethasone sodium phosphate, starting at 5.5 mg, followed by gradual dose tapering for 12 weeks, resulted in improvement of the ulcerative colitis and disappearance of the cutaneous lesions. Bullous Sweet's syndrome most commonly occurs in the setting of hematologic malignancies, suggesting that physicians should perform long-term screening for early diagnosis of hematological and solid malignancies.