Acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy; a report of five Iranian infants and review of the literature.

Background: Acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy (AHEI) is a benign self limiting leukocytoclastic vasculitis in young children. Serious complications, e.g. renal and gastrointestinal involvement, are not usually detected in AHEI patients.

Case Presentation: We report five patients with AHEI. Our patients were 17 to 21 months old. One patient presented with gastrointestinal bleeding due to this syndrome, the other one experienced second attack and scrotal edema due to epididymo-orchitis, while the third patient had renal involvement as hematuria and the other one had bilateral auricular chondritis. One of our cases was a typical case of AHEI without any complications, so a skin biopsy was not necessary. In this study, we describe the symptoms, probable triggering factors and treatment of choice for each patient.

Conclusion: Although AHEI is a childhood vasculitis with no impairment of the general condition, some organ involvements such as gastrointestinal, renal or scrotal lesions and rarely chondritis are probable in these patients.