Erythema multiforme major associated with CMV infection in an immunocompetent patient.

BACKGROUND

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection usually remains asymptomatic in immunocompetent adults, and few cases of complicated disease in nonimmunosuppressed patients have been reported. Erythema multiforme (EM), an acute and self-limiting skin eruption characterized by a typical targetoid lesion that may also affect the mucosa, is a hypersensitivity reaction that usually occurs after herpes simplex virus infection or use of certain drugs and resolves without complications in healthy individuals. To our knowledge, CMV infection has been associated with EM in only six patients.

OBJECTIVE

We present a case of an EM caused by CMV infection in a 35-year-old nonimmunosuppressed patient who was successfully treated with ganciclovir.

CONCLUSION

Our report, like other similar reports found in the literature, suggests that CMV can trigger EM in apparently healthy individuals. Intravenous ganciclovir appears to be a good treatment option in these cases.