Isolated Non-Resolving Vulvar Lesion as a Presentation of Disseminated Histoplasmosis in a Woman with HIV.

UNLABELLED: Disseminated histoplasmosis is most commonly caused by Histoplasma capsulatum and is a known opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. The clinical presentation of histoplasmosis varies from asymptomatic to a progressive disseminated form. Pulmonary and CNS involvement is common in disseminated histoplasmosis. Rarely, disseminated disease can present as vulvar lesion in the absence of pulmonary symptoms, causing a delay in diagnosis. As per our PubMed literature search, there have only been two reported cases where vulvar lesion was the only presenting symptom of disseminated disease. In our patient, a histopathological diagnosis was made with staining showing budding yeast forms of histoplasma.

LEARNING POINTS: Histoplasmosis can be a cause of isolated non-resolving vulvar lesion in immunocompromised patients.In patients at risk, we recommend work-up for disseminated histoplasmosis with urine histoplasma antigen and further imaging to rule out disseminated infection when histoplasma is identified on local biopsy samples.In patients from endemic regions and in non-resolving vulvar lesions, fungal infection should be considered.