Leishmaniasis affecting the eyelids

Abstract

Leishman-Donovan bodies were recognized in the smear of a biopsy specimen from an eyelid ulcer. The infecting organisms were identified serologically as Leishmania braziliensis panamensis. The ulcer responded to pentavalent antimony. Ultrastructurally, the organisms had double-unit membranes, beneath which lay a palisade of microtubules. At one end of the organism, there was a rudimentary flagellum; at the other, the nucleus. A kinetoplast basal complex separated the two.