The various clinical patterns of xanthoma disseminatum. Considerations on seven cases and review of the literature

Abstract

Background: Xanthoma disseminatum (XD) is a rare mucocutaneous xanthoma nowadays classified as a benign non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis.

Objective: We studied 7 cases of XD with a long follow-up and reviewed the literature in order to compare and discuss previous reports.

Methods: We studied clinical manifestations, course, histopathologic, ultrastructural and immunohistochemical findings of 7 cases of XD followed for 1-20 years.

Results: We report our findings and compare our cases with those described in the literature.

Conclusions: XD and Langerhans cell histiocytosis were distinguished by clinical differences, as well as ultrastructural and immunohistochemical methods. Three clinical patterns of XD appeared to emerge in our group of patients and in the cases reviewed from the literature.