PULMONARY BOTRYOMYCOSIS

Abstract

Botryomycosis is known to veterinarians as a pedunculated fibrous granuloma of horses especially. The growth usually arises in connection with skin surfaces, and often in the cut spermatic cord following castration. However, in the first description of the condition by Bollinger 1 in 1870 an internal organ, the lung of a horse, was the seat of the disease. In 1897, Poncet and Dor 2 identified the infection in a woman in a small growth on the palmar surface of the hand. Although human cases have been reported from France, Italy and Switzerland, it has been observed most commonly in northern Africa and in Morocco where it is said to occur as commonly as actinomycosis. The gross lesions consist of abundant chronic granulation tissue which is not especially characteristic but which on microscopic examination reveals granules made up of coccus-like organisms embedded in and surrounded by a hyaline matrix. In the chronic inflammatory