Background:
Acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy (AHEI) is a rare leukocytoclastic vasculitis of small vessels disease, typical in the young age group, and considered a benign self-limiting disease. Due to its limited prevalence, most of the data is sporadic and reports of complications with systemic involvement are infrequent.
Patients and methods:
We reviewed all computerized files of children who were hospitalized at a tertiary pediatric center due to AHEI over a 10 year period. We collected data regarding demographic, clinical, laboratory and histopathological characteristic.
Results:
Twenty six patients were included in our study with mean age of 12.9 months (range 6-30 months). Male to female ratio was 2.7:1. Most of the children had preceding symptoms compatible with viral infection. At admission all patients had rash and edema. Most prevalent type of rash was pruritic (85%) whereas the edema was most profound over the lower extremities (73%). Concomitant viral or bacterial infections were found in only 6 children (Escherichia coli urinary tract infection, Adenovirus, Rota virus, Streptococcus group A and primary Herpes simplex virus) . Skin biopsy was performed in six patients which demonstrated
leukocytoclastic vasculitis. 17 children (65%) had systemic involvement including arthralgia or arthritis (53%), gastrointestinal hemorrhage (53%), microscopic hematuria (3%) and compartment syndrome of the limb (3%).
Conclusions:
Our study present the largest disease series on AHEI. The clinical and histological findings in our series were similar to what was known in the literature. Nevertheless the incidence of complications was much higher.
