Pemphigus. Epidemiologic and survival characteristics of 59 patients, 1955-1973.

Abstract

An analysis of 59 patients with pemphigus (including 49 patients with pemphigus vulgaris) was performed at the University of California, Los Angeles hospital from 1955 to 1973. Twenty-nine percent of the patients with pemphigus vulgaris, by virtue of their occupation, had prolonged exposure to various unidentified chemicals prior to the onset of their disease. A comparison of results of our treatment for pemphigus vulgaris with those of other published series indicates that therapy with systemic corticosteroid and immunosuppressive drugs has decreased mortality for pemphigus vulgaris in recent years. The observed five-year survival rate for patients with pemphigus vulgaris was 81.5%. Only four of 49 patients (8.2%) died of the disease or its treatment; the overall mortality for patients with pemphigus vulgaris approximated 26.5% (the mortality for patients with pemphigus foliaceus was 25%).