Grover's disease associated with Sarcoptes scabieie

An 83-year-old man presented with a 4-month history of discrete, itchy papu les mainly distributed on the trunk and upper extremities. Histopathologic examination of two biopsies from lesions on the trunk revealed mainly focal suprabasal acantholysis and an inflammatory infiltrate composed mainly of lymphocytes with a few eosinophils. The overall clinical and histopathologi c features were consistent with Grover's disease. However, scrapings taken from the skin lesions showed numerous mites of Sarcoptes scabiei. Subsequen t treatment with an antiscabies cream led to a rapid complete cure, and no skin lesions have been observed during a 6-month follow-up. A review of the literature revealed 2 other cases of cutaneous lesions fulfilling the clin ical and histopathologic features of Grover's disease in which mites of S. scabiei were demonstrated. Our observation further highlights the unusual a ssociation of Grover's disease with S. scabiei mites and emphasises the imp ortance of excluding this easily treatable skin infestation in all patients with Grover's disease. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.