Pemphigus is an acute or chronic disease characterized by the successive formation of irregularly-scattered, variously-sized blebs.
Name the varieties met with.
Two varieties are usually described—pemphigus vulgaris and pemphigus foliaceus.
Describe the symptoms and course of pemphigus vulgaris.
With or without precursory symptoms of systemic disturbance, irregularly scattered blebs, few or in numbers, make their appearance, arising from erythematous spots or from apparently normal skin. They vary in size from a pea to a large egg, are rounded or ovalish, usually distended, and contain a yellowish fluid which, later, becomes cloudy or puriform. If ruptured, the rete is exposed, but the skin soon regains its normal condition; if undisturbed, the fluid usually disappears by absorption. Each lesion runs its course in several days or a week.
A grave type of pemphigus is exceptionally observed in the newborn—pemphigus neonatorum.
What course does pemphigus vulgaris pursue?
Usually chronic. The disease may subside in several months and the process come to an end, constituting the acute type. As a rule, however, the disease is chronic, new blebs continuing to appear from time to time for an indefinite period.
Fig. 30.
