Pm. Farthing et al., CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ORAL LESIONS IN PATIENTS WITH CUTANEOUS RECURRENT ERYTHEMA MULTIFORME, Journal of oral pathology & medicine, 24(1), 1995, pp. 9-13
Erythema multiforme may be recurrent and the oral cavity is often affe
cted. A series of 82 patients with unequivocal recurrent cutaneous ery
thema multiforme were examined to determine the incidence and nature o
f oral lesions. Seventy per cent of patients had oral lesions, compris
ing multiple, large, shallow, extremely painful and debilitating ulcer
s, which affected the entire oral mucosa in over 20%. The buccal mucos
a and tongue were the most frequently affected sites in the remainder
and the lips were affected in 13% of patients. Lesions generally laste
d for 1-3 weeks. In over 60% of cases these attacks followed an episod
e of herpes simplex virus infection during the preceding fortnight. Re
current attacks showed a different site distribution from the initial
attacks. with a greater proportion having genital as well as skin and
oral mucosal involvement. Detailed case histories of five patients are
presented to illustrate the role of azathioprine in treating oral les
ions and to document a familial case of recurrent erythema multiforme,
with severe mucosal involvement.