Lichen Nitidus

Abstract

Lichen nitidus was first described in 1907 by Pinkus¹ who reported nine cases, all men. The principal clinical characteristics of the disease are small discrete papules no larger than a pinhead, having a flat surface, being round or vaguely polygonal shaped, bright pink in color, and distributed on the penis, chest, and arms. In 1909 Arndt² reported twelve cases, all with lesions on the penis, and in one case, on the buccal membrane also. Kyrle and McDonagh³ reported a case in England in 1909, Sutton⁴ reported a case in the United States in 1910, and Civatte⁵ reported the first case in France in 1911.

Including the two cases in this report, I have been able to find reports of only ninety-five cases of lichen nitidus in the English, French, and German literature. The disease is uncommon, but because of the lack of symptoms which otherwise would announce its presence, it is probably more common than supposed.

In a review of the literature, Niles⁶ presented three theories for the etiology of lichen nitidus: (1) Tuberculous, because of a clinical and histologic association between tuberculosis and lichen nitidus in some cases, (2) a variety of lichen planus because, in other cases, there is a clinical and histologic resemblance between the two, and (3) in still other cases, lichen nitidus has the independent clinical and histologic picture of an inflammatory granuloma of unknown cause.

The evidence for tuberculous etiology includes: positive tuberculin reactions and an accentuation of the lesions (one case) ⁷; the. . .