The many faces of penile lichen planus

Abstract

A 54-year-old Caucasian male presented with a 3-month history of intermittently pruritic, purple, thin, reticular plaques on the penis. He had no other skin or mucosal involvement. There was no evidence of nail changes on physical examination. He denied any history of hepatitis C, hepatitis B, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). He had applied hydrocortisone 2.5% cream to the area daily for 3 weeks without any improvement in symptoms or clinical appearance. He was on no other medications. Physical examination revealed thin purple plaques with prominent lacy white reticulation on the penile shaft (Fig. 1). He had no oral involvement. The patient was started on topical triamcinolone 0.1% ointment to the affected areas for 6 weeks with symptom improvement. In this patient, because of the characteristic clinical findings and improvement with topical mid-