EXUDATIVE CHRONIC DISCOID AND LICHENOID DERMATITIS (SULZBERGER AND GARBE)

Abstract

In 1937 Sulzberger and Garbe 1 described a group of cases of what they designated exudative discoid and lichenoid chronic The authors referred to similar cases that had been described before with a variety of different diagnoses and also credited Rosen 2 with being the first to express the opinion that these cases may be examples of a distinctive dermatosis. Since Sulzberger and Garbe's publication, a number of cases with the diagnosis of exudative discoid and lichenoid chronic dermatosis have been presented before dermatologic societies, 3 and a similar group of cases was studied by Cannon. 4 The latter author, however, referred to the condition in his cases as allergic dermatitis simulating lymphoblastoma. The characteristic features of the disease as it appeared in Sulzberger and Garbe's cases may be described as follows: Chronic discoid and lichenoid dermatitis appears during the fourth or fifth decade of life andthus far has been observed only in Jewish males. There were 2 women and 1 gentile in the group as reported by Cannon. The dermatitis is chronic and remittent and is associated with intense and intractable itching.