Aphthae in the oral cavity: differential diagnosis

Introduction: Oral aphthae which are very commonly seen in an ENT practice should trigger a detailed investigation of the patient's history and a wide variety of differential diagnoses. Case report: A 32-year-old male patient was admitted suffering from aphthou s ulcers, fever, painful ankles and dysuria. Treatment with antibiotics was not successful. In addition to the above mentioned symptoms an exanthema a nd genital lesions arose during the hospital stay. After having excluded di fferential diagnoses a Morbus Behcet was diagnosed. The patient recovered a fter treatment with steroids and NSAIDs. Discussion and conclusion: Patients suffering from aphthae in the oral cavi ty are common and need to be precisely questioned about their history with an assessment of the frequency, morphology, localisation, number and type o f systemic symptoms. M. Behcet is a non-infectious progressive chronic syst emic vasculitis of unknown aetiology. Autoimmune, viral or genetic factors are possible. An HLA-association has already been proven. M. Behcet can be diagnosed by excluding all the other possible differential diagnoses.