A case of ‘turkey ear’ was diagnosed in a woman in her 50s, in which a tuberculosis infection in the skin gradually swelled her right ear over many years until it reached an enormous size.
The term turkey ear refers specifically to an infection in the ear that causes the skin to touch reddish, bumpy and touching; the comparison with turkeys may be a reference to the fleshy, bumpy necks of the birds, but the case reports do not specify which trait inspired the name.
In the case of the woman, the infection started in childhood and gradually progressed over time and became swollen over a reddish-brown color, according to a report of the case published in the journal JAMA Dermatology on March 3.
A study conducted at a medical center in Israel also revealed that regions in the woman’s ear acquired an “apple jelly appearance”, which literally means that the color looks like a jelly made of boiled apples, the authors write. The term “apple jelly” also refers to the texture of the raised nodules of the infected skin, which feel gelatinous when touched, according to a 2013 report in the magazine. Infectious diseases in clinical practice.
“She was determined that the lesion was present from an early age, but gradually increased” and began to leak a foul-smelling discharge, the authors write.
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The woman originally went to the clinic in 2008 and received two months of treatment with four antibiotics for the turkey ear; the treatment was then cut back to two medications for the next seven months. The infection improved with the improvement, but she only followed up in 2020, when doctors had the chance to re-examine her, the authors wrote. Her infection completely resolved and the ear shrank back to a normal size. Only a patch of scar skin remained as a sign of infection.
Tuberculosis Skin infections are caused by the same bacteria that infect the lungs, known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to the case report. It is relatively rare for the bacterium to infect the skin compared to other sites of infection outside the lungs, such as the lymph nodes, according to a 2012 report in the Indian Journal of Dermatology.
Specifically, the woman with turkey ear was diagnosed with ‘lupus vulgaris’, a condition in which the M. tuberculosis infection progresses very slowly in the skin and changes color and texture over the course of a few years. It is the most common manifestation of tuberculosis infection in the skin.
The infection usually occurs when M. tuberculosis migrates to the skin from elsewhere in the body, often via the blood or lymphatic system. Very, very rarely, the condition can occur after someone has received the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). vaccine, intended to prevent tuberculosis, the authors noted. This unusual complication is expected to occur in only 5 out of every 1 million of these vaccinations, according to a 2016 report in the journal. Case reports in dermatology.
The BCG vaccine is not commonly used in the United States, where controls have effectively reduced the risk of infection, but the vaccine is still commonly given to infants and children in countries where the condition is common, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC).
“The chronic, relatively asymptomatic nature of [lupus vulgaris] could cause a significant delay in diagnosis, ‘the authors noted other case reports describes patients who had lupus vulgaris for decades before being diagnosed.
In general, tuberculosis of the skin has ‘become rare in recent decades’, but the disease can still appear in unexpected places as people emigrate from regions where tuberculosis is endemic, the authors write. Therefore, dermatologists worldwide should still consider lupus vulgaris as a possibility if they encounter patients with turkey ears or apple jelly buds, they write.
Originally published on Live Science.