Scleredema-an uncommon cause of swelling in a child-a case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND: Body swelling in a child is a common symptom. Apart from systemic causes like renal, hepatic, and cardiac, rarely such a swelling may be caused by dermatologic conditions. CASE PRESENTATION: A child presented with swelling of the body which was subsequently diagnosed as scleredema, a rare and benign dermatologic condition. Scleredema can be confused with similar sounding terms like scleroderma and scleromyxedema. CONCLUSIONS: The case is presented to highlight scleredema as a rare cause of body swelling in paediatrics and to differentiate it from similar sounding rare terms like scleroderma and scleromyxedema.