Vulvar inflammatory dermatoses for the non-dermatopathologist: an approach for the practising surgical pathologist

Recognition of tissue patterns of injury will help the non-dermatopathologist when confronted with biopsies of vulvar inflammatory dermatoses. This paper defines and discusses the most common inflammatory patterns including: spongiosis, psoriasiform, interface and vesiculobullous, providing a brief overview of the clinical, histologic and differential diagnoses of the more common lesions to affect the vulva. Also included are entities with specific predilection for the female gynaecologic tract including Zoon’s vulvitis and Behcet’s disease. A comprehensive review of this topic is beyond the scope of this mini-symposium. However we hope to provide an approach to the diagnosis of vulvar inflammatory dermatitis which will be of practical use to the surgical pathologist.