[Painful anisocoria in a five-year-old child: A rare diagnosis which must not be missed]. / Anisocorie douloureuse chez un enfant de cinq ans : un diagnostic rare à ne pas méconnaître.

Congenital ectropion uveae (CEU) is a rare anomaly of the embryonic development of the anterior segment of the eye. We report the case of a 5-year-old child with an undiagnosed CEU who was treated urgently for an acute angle closure attack. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 5-year-old child was referred urgently for evaluation of anisocoria with mydriasis of the right eye and severe headache. Brain imaging with contrast injection was initially performed in the pediatric emergency department and ruled out central nervous system pathology. The initial examination of the right eye revealed an intraocular pressure (IOP) of 37mmHg, corneal edema, congenital ectropion uveae, mydriasis with pupillary block, a closed angle on gonioscopy, and a clear lens. The examination of the left eye was unremarkable, with no visible CEU. The initial management consisted of medical treatment with topical glaucoma drops and miotics and acetazolamide at 10mg/kg/d. Re-evaluation under general anesthesia showed persistent mydriasis and no resolution of the pupillary block. Filtering surgery was performed in the absence of a complete response to medical treatment, allowing control of IOP without drops and complete regression of the corneal edema. DISCUSSION: CEU is a rare malformation, and pressure complications represent an insignificant proportion of pediatric glaucoma cases. The acute presentation of acute angle closure in this potentially blinding short-term setting, however, makes detection and management difficult in very young children in a great deal of pain. Only one similar case has been reported in the pediatric literature. CONCLUSION: Acute angle closure complicating CEU is exceptional and difficult to diagnose in a pediatric context. Parents of children with this predisposing condition should be informed of the need to consult urgently when clinical signs of elevated intraocular pressure appear.

[Infectious cellulitis and Shewanella alga septicemia in an immunocompetent patient]. / Dermohypodermite bactérienne aiguë et septicémie à Shewanella alga chez un homme immunocompétent.

BACKGROUND: Shewanella alga is a Gram-negative bacilla often found in water or soil. Clinical infections in humans are rare, with serious infections described generally in immunocompromised hosts. CASE REPORT: A 66 year-old man with a heel wound had developed, after numerous sea baths in the Atlantic ocean (Oleron island, France), an infectious cellulitis of the leg with Shewanella alga septicemia. Despite the absence of immunodeficiency in this patient, infectious cellulitis and septicemia occurred via a wound to the skin and contact with sea water. Healing was seen after treatment with cefotaxime, ciprofoxacin and gentamicin IV, relayed with ciprofloxacin and erythromycin. Shewanella alga was also susceptible to ticarcillin, piperacillin and ceftazidime but was resistant to ampicillin, amoxicilline-clavulanate, colistin, cyclines, fosfomycin and cefsulodin. No immunological anomaly was found. DISCUSSION: We report a case of infectious cellulitis with Shewanella alga septicemia. This has not previously been described in an immunocompetent patient. Antibiotic therapy must be longer than usual treatment for streptococcal erysipelas and first-line antibiotherapy with ampicillin alone may not be sufficient.

[Acyclovir-resistance zona in a immunocompromised HIV seronegative patient]. / Zona résistant à l'aciclovir chez un malade immunodéprimé non infecté par le VIH.

INTRODUCTION: Resistance to antiviral therapy is getting actually more frequent. Immunocompromised host are more concerned with this problem. OBSERVATION: We present a case of disseminated zoster resisting to acyclovir (ACV) therapy, but healing with foscarnet in a man treated with chemotherapy for lymphoma and seronegative for HIV. CI50 of VZV strain was 48 microM for ACV, which was 2.8 times higher than value of the reference OKA strain tested simultaneously, which confirmed the resistance for ACV. DISCUSSION: Immunocompromised patients often present varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection. They usually heal in response to ACV therapy, but some HIV infected patients have already presented with resistant strains of VZV. This case is the first described in a non-HIV infected patient. Foscarnet therapy resulted twice in complete healing because of its direct activity on viral DNA polymerase, so it is efficaceous therapy for patients with thymidine-kinase-deficient ACV-resistant VZV infection.

[Progressive macular confluent hypomelanosis in mixed ethnic melanodermic subjects: an epidemiologic study of 511 patients]. / Hypomélanose maculeuse confluente et progressive du métis mélanoderme: étude épidémiologique sur 511 sujets.

INTRODUCTION: The pathogenesis of the recently described (1985) entity macular confluent progressive hypomelanosis in black subjects of mixed ethnic origin, also called creole dyschromia is unknown. Patients are generally black adults of mixed ethnic origin and present with hypopigmented maculae located asymmetrically in unexposed areas. The mechanism appears to be a phenotypic modification of produced melanosomes. The cases published to date do not provide clear epidemiological data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We took histories and examined 511 patients in the French West Indies (Martinique) during systematic screening for leprosy. Observations included presence or absence of creole dyschromia, the intensity of the depigmentation. History reports included chronology of the lesions and factors affecting disease course. RESULTS: One-hundred twenty-one cases of dyschromia were identified, often with few clinical signs. Creole dyschromia was found in one-third of the examined subjects between the age of 17 and 48 years and appeared to be more exception outside this age range. More men than women were found to have the disease and the duration of the clinical course was about 25 years. Clearer skin appeared to be more sensitive and only responded to intermittent exposure to sun. DISCUSSION: Due to the fact that the examination was mandatory, it was possible to identify a large number of cases unknown to dermatologists and sometimes to the subject himself. The clinical description corresponded to those given in the literature, but the higher frequency in males, the duration of the clinical course and the sensitivity of clearer skin appear to have been unreported to date.