Primary Subcutaneous Actinomycosis: A Case Report

Abstract

Actinomycosis is a chronic, suppurative, granulomatous and spreading disease which is caused by anaerobic bacteria of the family Actinomycetaceae. It is an endogenous infection and is induced by some predisposing factors that introduce Actinomyces species, which are the normal in habitants of the host, into the mucosa. There are a variety of forms including cervico-fasial, abdominal, toracic, pelvic, cerebral, and cutaneous actinomycosis. Cutaneous actinomycosis is extremely rare. Further more, actinomycosis is frequently undiagnosed or misdiagnosed and thus is not treated correctly. In most cases, definitive diagnosis is made after surgical resection. We present 9-year-old boy who was referred to our center with the complaint of back mass and the histopathological examination of excisional biopsy which was performed for excluding malignancy revealed actinomycosis .