Acute presentation of violaceous lesions of the skin

Abstract

The cutaneous manifestations associated with human immunodeficiency virus affect most of the patients with this infection at some point. These patients have up to 15-fold higher rate of common infections and inflammatory skin conditions than the general population. The Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is a systemic multifocal disease associated with the HIV. Since the introduction of the highly active antiretroviral therapy, the incidence of KS has declined in HIV-infected patients among developed countries. However, it remains a one of the leading causes of death in the rest of the world. We report a case of a 31-year-old man who came to our dermatolgy outpatient clinic. He had mucus membrane lining the mouth and tongue and purple lesions of acute presentation that were asintomatic in skin and genitalia. He was diagnosed with oral candidiasis and KS associated with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The purpose of this article is to emphasize the cutaneous manifestations of Kaposi’s sarcoma and the importance of ruling out HIV infection in this patients