CUTANEOUS KAPOSIS-SARCOMA REVEALING PEDIA TRIC ACQUIRED-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-SYNDROME

Introduction. Kaposi's sarcoma associated with acquired immunodeficien cy syndrome is uncommon in children and cutaneous localizations are ra re. We report a case of pediatric cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma that reve aled a human immunodeficiency virus infection. Observation. An 8-years -old girl native of the Ivory Coast, with normal statural and psychomc otor development, presented cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma after varicella . The serodiagnosis was positive for type 1 human immunodeficiency vir us and CD4 lymphocytes count was 9/mm(3). A tonsil localization of Kap osi's sarcoma occurred and bleomycin was a short time effective. A rel apse of cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma with digestive, pulmonary and neuro logical symptoms was transitorily controlled by the association predni sone-vinblastine-doxorubicin, but death occurred with recurrence of ph aryngeal Kaposi's sarcoma. Discussion. The review of literature shows that in pediatric acquired immunodeficiency syndrom, failure to thrive , encephalopathy and opportunistic infections are common. On the other hand, Kaposi's sarcoma is unusual and cutaneous localizations are esp ecially observed when the contamination is postnatal and late. In our case the contamination is presumed perinatal and the human immunodefic iency virus infection was asymptomatic until 8 years old. Kaposi's sar coma was the cause of the most presenting symptoms and of death, witho ut demonstrated opportunistic infections.