Introduction:

erythema nodosum is the most common clinical-pathological variant of panniculitis. It is an immunological skin reaction in response to a wide spectrum of etiologic agents.

Objective:

to characterize the clinical-epidemiological behavior of erythema nodosum.

Materials and methods:

a descriptive, prospective and longitudinal study was carried out in patients with diagnosis of erythema nodosum, admitted to the Provincial Teaching Clinical Surgical Hospital León Cuervo Rubio, of Pinar del Río, in the period January 2017 to December 2018. The universe was formed by 34 patients with clinical diagnosis of erythema nodosum, hospitalized in the services of Internal Medicine and Dermatology. Medical records, physical examination and laboratory tests were used for the collection of information. Theoretical, empirical and statistical methods were used; descriptive statistics was used through absolute frequencies and percentage.

Results:

the largest group of patients was between 30 and 39 years, and they were female. Injuries were more frequent in the winter months. The type of idiopathic erythema nodosum prevailed. The time of evolution prevailed from 1 to 3 months. Infections predominated as a secondary cause, and the most commonly used treatments were non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Conclusions:

it is an important health condition, whose early etiological diagnosis allows the proper treatment. Its identification and management in both primary and secondary care is difficult.

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