Lumpy Bumpy Weepy Face - A Rare Case Report of a Frequently Misdiagnosed Disease

ABSTRACT

.Infectious clinical conditions that can present with swellings and sinuses more commonly, include cutaneous tuberculosis, and subcutaneous and deep fungal infections. One of the differentials that should be considered in such a scenario is actinomycosis. Actinomyces are filamentous gram-positive bacteria that are facultative anaerobes which can form endospores. The individual bacterium is rod shaped filamentous organism. After its discovery in 1890, a misconception was that it is a mycosis that affected individuals who chewed grass or straw. The pathogen is still known as the ‘great masquerader’.1Many entities can mimic cutaneous mycobacterial infections and deep cutaneous mycosis. One such great mimicker is actinomycosis – a bacterial infection caused by Actinomyces israelii. Though it is sensitive to many antibiotics, the duration of treatment for effective clearance of the lesions is long.