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Arch Dermatol. 2005;141:897-902.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Diagnosis: Trigeminal trophic syndrome (TTS), also known as trigeminal neuropathy with nasal ulceration, trigeminal neurotrophic ulceration, trophic ulceration of the ala nasi, or ulceration en arc.

MICROSCOPIC FINDINGS

A biopsy specimen from the edge of the ulceration revealed granulation tissue with acute and chronic inflammation. The results of the Tzanck preparation were negative. Histopathologic changes were not specific and suggested a trauma-induced lesion.

DISCUSSION

Trigeminal trophic syndrome, which was first described in 1933,¹ is a diagnosis of exclusion. The distinctive clinical presentation is damage to the sensory root of the trigeminal nerve, with a variety of paresthesias (numbness, burning, pain, crawling, tingling, or delusion of nasal stuffiness) around the nasal ala, resulting in a crescent-shaped lateral nasal ala ulceration.^2-4 It is unclear why only certain patients with facial anesthesia experience paresthesia and why only a few of these patients develop ulcers.

In 1982, a review of 63 TTS cases showed that 75% of the ulcers occurred after alcohol or surgical destruction of the trigeminal nerve in the gasserian ganglion for trigeminal neuralgia.² Since that review, an additional 60 cases . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Arch Dermatol. 2005;141(7):897-902.
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