Case Report
Multibacillary Leprosy Presenting as Anetoderma in a
Young Teenager
Niraj Parajuli ,
1
Shraddha Shrestha,
1
Laila Lama,
1
Rushma Shrestha,
1
Sumida Tiwari,
2
and Anupama Karki
1
1
Department of Dermatology & Venereology, National Academy of Medical Sciences, Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal
2
Department of Pathology, National Academy of Medical Sciences, Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal
Correspondence should be addressed to Niraj Parajuli; drnirajparajuli@gmail.com
Received 23 May 2020; Accepted 17 July 2020; Published 29 July 2020
Academic Editor: Jacek Cezary Szepietowski
Copyright©2020NirajParajulietal.isisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Anetodermapresentsasacircumscribedareaofslackskin.Itcanpresentaseitherprimaryorsecondary,ifassociatedwithother
conditions. Leprosy is one of the causes of secondary anetoderma, but it is not commonly reported, especially in multibacillary
leprosy. Here, we report a case of a 16-year-old young girl who presented with fever, joint pain, and only three anetodermic
plaques. A slit skin smear from the lesion showed multiple acid-fast bacilli with a bacillary index of 3+, thus confirming the
diagnosis of leprosy. is case is unique since multibacillary leprosy presented with only few anetoderma lesions in a young
teenager girl from a leprosy-eliminated country.
1. Introduction
Anetoderma refers to a circumscribed area of slack skin
associated with a loss of dermal substance on palpation
andalossofelastictissueonhistologicalexamination[1].
Anetoderma is an elastolytic disorder characterized by
localized areas of flaccid skin, which may be depressed,
macular, or papular [2]. “Primary” anetoderma is asso-
ciated with no localized underlying cutaneous disease,
whereas “secondary” anetoderma can be attributed to
some associated condition like leprosy, tuberculosis, ur-
ticaria pigmentosa, pityriasis versicolor, granuloma
annulare, and others [1].
Here, we report a case of multibacillary leprosy pre-
senting as anetoderma in a young teenager girl during the
post-elimination era.
2. Case Report
A 16-year-old female from the Terai region presented to
theemergencydepartmentwithcomplaintsofhigh-grade
fever for 5 days. She was being managed empirically with
parenteral antibiotics. An opinion was sought from the
dermatological team regarding few asymptomatic, skin-
coloredlesionsovertheextremities.esoftplaqueswere
firstnoticedovertheleftlowerlegand,then,overtheright
armwithinaperiodof6months.erewasnosignificant
past and family history.
On general examination, an ill-looking young female
with fever, bilateral pedal pitting edema, and diffuse
swelling of the face was observed. Vital signs were all
withinnormallimits.Onskinexamination,fewround-to-
oval plaques with an atrophic, wrinkled surface of ap-
proximate 1 × 1cm
2
were present over the right arm,
forearm, and left lower leg. On stretching, atrophic pla-
quesbecameflat(Figure1(a)),andonleavingtheskinlax,
the plaques returned to initial texture
(Figure 1(b)).Similar plaques were also present over the
left lower thigh (Figure 2). All the plaques had decreased
sensationtocoldandtouch.Bilateralulnarnervesandthe
leftcommonperonealnervewereenlargedandtender.No
motor deficit or deformity was noted during the exami-
nation. A slit skin smear with Ziehl–Neelsen stain was
performed, revealing multiple acid-fast bacilli with a
bacillary index (BI) of 3+. Excisional biopsy and histo-
pathological examination of atrophic plaques from the
Hindawi
Case Reports in Dermatological Medicine
Volume 2020, Article ID 8847310, 3 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8847310