Lipschütz Ulcers: A Literature Review Based on 79 Cases

Abstract

Lipschütz ulcers (LU) are acute genital ulcers that occur in women. These ulcers are painful and cause enormous emotional stress to the affected person. It is also of the utmost important for the treating physician to differentiate LU from sexually transmitted ulcers like syphilis, herpes genitalis, and chancroid. The aetiology of LU is not known but recent studies have proposed that it is associated with viral infections, such as the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and the cytomegalovirus (CMV), as well as other bacterial infections, such as mycoplasma. Using the PubMed database, articles published between the years of 2003 and 2015 were collected. A total of 20 studies (N=79) fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were selected for analysis. All the published articles were reviewed and relevant data extracted. The age range of patients included in these studies was 17 months to 79 years old. The causative organism was unknown in 50 patients (63%), EBV in 13 patients (16%), Mycoplasma pneumoniae in 4 patients (5%), CMV infections in 4 patients (5%), Mycoplasma fermentans in 3 patients (3.7%), mumps in 1 patient (1.2%), paratyphoid fever in 1 patient (1.2%), parvovirus B19 in 1 patient (1.2%), co-infection of influenza B and adenovirus in 1 patient (1.2%), and co-infection of EBV and CMV in 1 patient (1.2%). Even though viral and bacterial infections had been linked with LU in many of the patients included in these studies, the aetiology remains unknown. Hence, more research is warranted to ascertain the aetiological factors of LU.