A relative was stationed in Korean about thirty years ago. He developed a skin disease that involved symmetrical sores on both sides of his body. This resolved, but he has had an almost continual problem with his lower legs since then - mostly red sores. A doctor prescribed what he now thinks were steroids that cleared the problems, but his regular doctor vetoed it as being too dangerous. He is seeing a doctor now who has told him that his problem now probably involves an overreaction of the immune system to original skin disease. He would like to clear this problem up.
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Of course, it would help me if I knew your relatives current "diagnosis". My guess might be pyoderma gangrenosum, which can either go on for years or have remissions with/or without recurrences. I trust the doctors have looked for underlying causes (i.e. sometimes the skin is the window that shows us other diseases going on in the body). For example, inflammatory bowel disease is often associated with pyoderma gangrenosum. The ulcers (sores) of PG often respond to steroids. Eliot
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Dermatology Online: Served by Eliot N. Mostow, MD, MPH
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