Dermatologic clinics
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The Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome is a rare disorder of unknown etiology characterized by a triad of recurrent orofacial swelling, relapsing facial paralysis, and fissured tongue. Exacerbations and recurrences are common. The orofacial swelling is characterized by fissured, reddish-brown, swollen, nonpruritic lips or firm edema of the face. ⋯ Orofacial granulomatosis is a clinicopathologic entity describing oral lesions with noncaseating granulomas. The spectrum of this entity includes patients with oral Crohn's disease, patients with oral lesions who will develop typical bowel symptoms of Crohn's disease in the ensuing months to years, patients with tooth-associated infections, patients with sarcoidosis, and patients with food or contact allergies. The value of the clinicopathologic construct of orofacial granulomatosis is to provoke the careful search for provocative causes for the reactive symptom complex of the Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome.