Bullous lesions in acrodermatitis enteropathica delaying diagnosis of zinc deficiency: a report of two cases and review of the literature

Abstract

Acrodermatitis enteropathica (AE) is a rare disorder associated with poor absorption of zinc. A variety of clinical and histological findings have been reported in the literature, described mainly in isolated case reports. Because of the varied nature of these cases, the histological features of AE are described often as non-specific. We describe lesions of AE in two patients who presented with vesiculobullous and erosive skin lesions, both showing intra-epidermal, inflammatory vesiculation with surrounding eosinophilic epidermis and necrotic keratinocytes. The lack of clinical suspicion of AE led to their misdiagnosis. We present these two patients to further characterize the bullous variant of AE, and we review the previously reported clinical and histopathological findings.