Journal of Cutaneous Pathology 1976: 3.- 116-117

Familial Benign Chronic Pemphigus*(Hailey-Hailey Disease)

A 39-year-old Caucasian man suffered from a recurrent bullous dertnatosis which had also af-fected several of his male siblings.

Clinically, there was on the back of the neck an crythetnatous patch with small flaccid bullae onthe edges and tendency to clear in the center (Fig. 1). Erythrotiiycin 1 % (ILOTYCIN) oint-ment applied t.i.d over a period of 10 days resulted in partial clearing (Fig. 2).

Histopathologically, an intact suprabasal intracpidcrtiial bulla showed acantholysis (Fig. 3), villiand lacunae ;ts well as gram positive cocci and erytlirocytes.

Address:Leopoldo F. MoniesLaboratory of DermatopalhologyDepartmenI of DermatologyUniversity of Alabama in BirininghainMedical CenterBirmingham, Alabama 35294U.S.A.

* Hailey, H. & Hailey, H. (1939) Familial benign chronic pemphigus. Archives of Dermatologyand Syphilology 39, 679-685.

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