KAPOSI'S VARICELLIFORM ERUPTION

Abstract

TOWARD the end of the last century Kaposi¹described a syndrome in children. The young patients experienced an eruption and a febrile reaction as a complication of preexisting atopic dermatitis. Lesions usually appeared over the old atopic dermatitis, but occasionally invaded the neighboring healthy skin. The lesions went through various stages of vesiculation, umbilication, desiccation and rupture. The acute lesions appeared in recurrent crops for many days, and when they finally healed only signs of the original atopic dermatitis persisted. No mention was made in the original description of lymph node involvement, which was a common observation in subsequent reports of similiar cases. Shortly thereafter, under the title of "Pustulosis acuta varioliformis," Juliusberg²described a fatal case in which there were lesions similar to those of Kaposi's varicelliform eruption. A similar disease picture has been described by many authors under the name of eczema vaccinatum. Many of these