Neutrophilic dermatoses and inflammatory bowel diseases

Abstract

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) and Sweet's Syndrome (SS) are inflammatory skin diseases caused by the accumulation of neutrophils in the skin and, rarely, in internal organs, which led to coining the term of neutrophilic dermatoses (ND) to define these conditions. Recently, ND have been included among the autoinflammatory diseases, which are forms due to mutations of genes regulating the innate immune responses. Both PG and SS are frequently associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), a group of chronic intestinal disorders which comprises ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease and whose pathogenesis involves both the innate and adaptive immunity in genetically prone individuals. Patients with IBD develop PG in 1-3% of cases, while SS is rarer. PG presents with deep erythematous-to-violaceous painful ulcers with undermined borders, but bullous, pustular, and vegetative variants can also occur. SS, also known as acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis, is characterized by the abrupt onset of fever, peripheral neutrophilia, tender erythematous skin lesions and a diffuse neutrophilic dermal infiltrate. In this review that will be focused on PG and SS, we will describe also the aseptic abscesses syndrome, a new entity within the spectrum of ND which frequently occurs in association with IBD and is characterized by deep abscesses mainly involving the spleen and skin and by polymorphic cutaneous manifestations including PG- and SS-like lesions.