Case report

Sweet's syndrome in a patient with Crohn's disease: a case report

Nadia M Mustafa¹ and Mark Lavizzo^{* 2}

¹Internal Medicine Residency Program, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

²Assistant professor, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Journal of Medical Case Reports 2008, 2:221doi:10.1186/1752-1947-2-221

Published:	28 June 2008

Abstract

Background

Sweet's syndrome, also known as acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis, has been associated with malignancy, autoimmune disease and collagen vascular disease. The association of Crohn's disease and Sweet's syndrome is rare. We report a case of Sweet's syndrome in a patient with Crohn's disease.

Case presentation

A 63-year-old man with a history of Crohn's disease presented with one-week duration of abdominal pain, diarrhea and hematochezia. He also noticed eruption of painful skin rashes all over his body at the same time. Colonoscopy and esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) showed inflammation involving different parts of the gastrointestinal tract consistent with Crohn's disease. Punch biopsy of the skin lesion was consistent with Sweet's syndrome, which has a rare association with Crohn's disease.

Conclusion

Crohn's disease should be excluded in patients presenting with Sweet's syndrome and diarrhea. Alternatively, Sweet's syndrome should be considered as a diagnosis when a patient with Crohn's disease develops skin lesions.