EPIDERMODYSPLASIA VERRUCIFORMIS (LEWANDOWSKY AND LUTZ)

Abstract

In 1931, Mashkilleisson¹presented an excellent review of epidermodysplasia verruciformis, describing in detail a patient with the generalized form of the disease and reporting briefly on a patient with the localized type. This form of dysplasia was first described in 1922 by Lewandowsky and Lutz²and was reported in the same year by Fuchs.³Table 1 is a modified summary of the cases included in Mashkilleisson's review. Mashkilleisson¹stated that the disease was a hereditary dystrophy with a precancerous tendency, because in 20 per cent of the cases previously reported there were cutaneous epitheliomas. The question of whether epidermodysplasia verruciformis is a definite entity or a special type of generalized warts, a view championed by Hoffmann,⁴has not been settled. Epidermodysplasia verruciformis has been reported under the following titles: verrucosis generalisata,⁵verrucae dyskeratoticae congenitales,⁶<i>verallgemeinerte Warzenerkrankung</i>,⁴verrucae disseminatae,⁷<i>warzigen Naevi</i>