Granuloma faciale: a clinicopathological study of 11 cases.

BACKGROUND: Granuloma faciale is an uncommon disease of unknown etiology that is often misdiagnosed clinically and by general pathologists.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinicopathological features of a series of patients with granuloma faciale.

METHODS: Eleven patients diagnosed with granuloma faciale between 1990 and 2002 were included in the study.

RESULTS: Granuloma faciale was diagnosed in 11 patients (9 male and 2 female, mean age 53.45 years). All of them presented facial cutaneous lesions and two of them also developed extrafacial lesions. Histologically, in 8 cases the infiltrate was limited to the upper half of the dermis. Two specimens showed fibrinoid necrosis. Concentric fibrosis around small blood vessels was demonstrated in 5 patients.

CONCLUSION: The presence of abundant fibrosis in 5 of our patients similar to that observed in erythema elevatum diutinum suggests that granuloma faciale and erythema elevatum diutinum may be produced by similar or the same pathogenic mechanism.