A 70 year old man developed a psoriasiform dermatitis of the fingers, toes and ears (helix). He had a destructive nail dystrophy. A few weeks later the patient also developed cervical adenopathy. Otolaryngologic investigations revealed a layngeal squamous cell carcinoma.The Bazex syndrome or acrokeratosis paraneoplastica is a rare dermatosos associated with carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract with possible lymph node mestastases. The cutaneous lesions occuring in the syndrome are non metastatic skin involvment. The psoriasiform lesions often precede the diagnosis of the associated malignancy, or occur simultaneously. The reapparance of skin lesions may signal a recurrence of the tumor. Treatment consists in treatment of the underlying cancer. In some cases, acitretin or oral psoralen phototherapy could be prescribed.
Description
symmetric erythematous scaly patches with yellowing and scaling of the nails
