POIKILODERMA VASCULARE ATROPHICANS

Abstract

ATROPHY, telangiectasia and pigmentation, with muscular weakness, were described by Petges and Cléjat¹ in 1906, the same year in which Jacobi² described a complex dermatologic disease characterized by telangiectasia, pigmentation and, later, capillary hemorrhages and atrophy, which he³ subsequently termed poikiloderma vasculare atrophicans. Since then over 180 cases have been presented, both as published reports and in addresses before dermatologic societies. Lane⁴ introduced the first case to an American audience in 1920, before the New York Dermatological Society. During the last twenty-five years, approximately twenty-two papers describing this disease have appeared in the English and American literature. In recent years the existence of poikiloderma vasculare atrophicans as a separate clinical entity has been challenged by many competent dermatologists, including Oppenheim⁵ and Montgomery and Sullivan.⁶ These authors expressed the belief that this is a symptom rather than a clinical entity. According to Montgomery and Sullivan,