Peau d'orange

A facial eosinophilic granuloma demonstrating "peau d'orange"

Peau d'orange (French for "orange peel skin" or, more literally, "skin of an orange") describes anatomy with the appearance and hair follicles get buried in the edema and resemble an orange peel. Peau d'orange is caused by cutaneous lymphatic edema, which causes swelling. However, some parts of the edematous skin is tethered by the hair follicles and the sweat glands such that it causes pitting when the surrounding area swells, leading to an appearance like orange skin. Occasionally, the same phenomenon is seen over a chronic abscess.

Peau d'orange on the breast should raise concerns about possible underlying inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer.^[1]

Other examples besides inflammatory breast cancer include the eye due to breaks in Bruch's Membrane called angioid streaks, which are common in pseudoxanthoma elasticum, or in elephantiasis caused by thread-like, microscopic parasitic worms (filariasis). Peau d'orange can be also seen with myxedema of Graves' disease, where the term refers more to the texture than the color.

References[]

External links[]

• www.djo.harvard.edu

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