clinico-pathological study of cutaneous granulomatous lesions- a 5 yr experience in a tertiary care hospital in india

background: granulomatous dermatoses are common skin pathology, often need histopathological confirmation for diagnosis. histologically six sub-types of granulomas found in granulomatous skin diseases- tuberculoid, sarcoidal, necrobiotic, suppurative, foreign body & histoid type. the aims of the present study were clinico-pathological evaluation of granulomatous skin lesions and their etiological classification based on histopathological examination. methods: it was a five years (jan 2009- dec 2013) retrospective study involving all the skin biopsies. detailed clinical and histopathological features were analyzed and granulomatous skin lesions were categorized according to type of granuloma & etiology. special stains were used in few cases for diagnostic purpose. results: among 1280 skin biopsies, 186 cases (14.53%) were granulomatous skin lesions with a ratio 1:24. in histopathological sub-typing, tuberculoid granuloma was most common type (126 cases, 67.74%). most common etiology of granuloma in the study was leprosy (107 cases, 57.52%). other etiologies were cutaneous tuberculosis, foreign body granulomas, fungal lesions, cutaneous leishmaniasis, sarcoidosis and granuloma annulare. conclusion: histopathology is established as gold standard investigation for diagnosis, categorization and clinico-pathological correlation of granulomatous skin lesions.