Atypical mucocutaneous involvement with Leishmania donovani

Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis has rarely been reported from India. The usual causative organisms of this infection are Leishmania braziliensis and L. tropica. Another species, L. donovani, which usually causes visceral leishmaniasis, has recently been reported to cause mucocutaneous disease in a few patients from Sri Lanka. We report two patients who had undiagnosed chronic skin lesions for several years. Skin biopsies revealed Leishmania and the species was characterized as L. donovani in both patients. There was considerable improvement in the skin lesions following treatment with liposomal amphotericin B.