Involvement of palms in leprosy: An unusual clinical manifestation

Abstract

Leprosy (Hansen's disease), a chronic granulomatous infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae, frequently affects the areas of skin, which have a relatively low temperature and/or are prone to trauma. Several zones of skin, for example, scalp, palms and soles, groins, genitalia, axillae, eyelids, and perineum, have usually been described as “immune” to lesions of leprosy. However, clinical, bacteriological, and pathologic evidence of involvement of these so-called “immune zones” has rarely been documented. Therefore, now many workers have proposed that these “immune zones” should be called “relatively immune,” rather than “absolute immune.” Hereby, we report a rare case of leprosy with palmar involvement.

Keywords

• absolute immune zones
• leprosy
• mycobacterium leprae
• relative immune zones
• type 1 lepra reaction