Scleroedema in a child.

A 3-year-old Japanese girl with scleroedema was reported. She had had no signs of diabetes but did have a preceding bacterial infection in the tonsils three weeks before the skin lesion appeared. The skin on the face, shoulders, extensor aspect of the upper arms, and proximal half of the forearms was indurated. The skin lesions expanded from the middle part of the forearms to the wrists during the observation period. Thereafter, the induration gradually disappeared. A literature review revealed there were only six reports of scleroedema in children under 15 years old before 1996 in Japan; a total of 166 cases of the disease was reported in the same period. Five out of these six cases were not diabetes-associated. All but one of these six patients were female. Juvenile scleroedema seems to be rare in Japan.