Localized reactive erythemas of different types in a family.

"Reactive erythemas" is an umbrella term grouping several different conditions, all of which have in common the fact of being stereotypical inflammatory clinical patterns of the skin in response to disparate infectious, immune, or toxic factors. Typically, such eruptions are symmetrical or disseminated. The here reported cases are different. An elderly man underwent recurrent infections of an epidermoid cyst, accompanied by a typical erythema annulare centrifugum near the infectious focus. His grandson, aged ten months, presented with an infectious conjunctivitis, during the resolution of which two small annular lesions, compatible with annular erythema of infancy, appeared on the face. A man aged 42, respectively son and father of the two former patients, presented with an erythema multiforme target lesion proximally to an infected wound. There were no detectable predisposing factors in all cases. Familial cases of reactive erythemas have been reported. However, such limited distributions have not yet been described.