[So-called "pseudorheumatoid" nodules in childhood (author's transl)].

This report concerns 4 patients, 2 to 2,5 years of age, with subcutaneous "pseudorheumatoid" nodules in the occipital region. None of the children suffered from any real rheumatic or rheumatoid disease, nor were there any biochemical signs of those diseases detectable. The course of the nodules was benign, they disappeared within several years, and no later rheumatic disease occurred. Extirpation and histology was performed in all 4 cases, the microscopic diagnosis being uniformly "rheumatic granuloma". The own observations are confronted with the literature. It is concluded that, inspite of the histological similarity of true rheumatic granuloma with the "pseudorheumatic" nodules, no etiologic relations between the two conditions seem to exist. The benignity of the pseudorheumatic nodules is underlined, and the diagnostic and prognostic importance of the condition is stressed.