Skip to main content
RACS ASC 2024

Vaping - not such a sweet alternative: a case of bilateral hands Sweet Syndrome

Poster

Poster

Disciplines

Hand Surgery

Presentation Description

Institution: Monash Health - VIC, Australia

Sweet Syndrome (SS) has been widely described in the dermatological, histological, immunological and surgical literature. Multiple clinical and histological variants have been examined. Neutrophilic dermatosis of the dorsal hands (NDDH) is one of the variants and presents with indurated painful erythematous plaques mixed with ulcers and pustules. We present a case of NDDH after starting vaping. SS was first described as an acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis by Dr Robert Sweet in 1964, who observed ‘raised painful plaques on the limbs, face and neck’ of eight women associated with leukocytosis and ‘histologically a dense dermal infiltration with mature neutrophil polymorphs’. It is a rare condition that can occur in any age group on any skin surface due to a variety of causes or is idiopathic. To date there has not been any case reports of SS associated with vaping. Electronic cigarettes were developed as an alternative to tobacco smoking. While their use has steadily risen, so did the adverse reactions, including allergic reactions, burns, lupus, oral mucosal lesions. While our case report highlights yet another iatrogenic cause of Sweet’s syndrome, we believe more cases will be observed world-wide as vaping becomes a more popular alternative to cigarette smoking.

Speakers

Authors

Authors

Dr Tetyana Kelly - , Dr Vicki Mcclure - , Dr Ian Loh -