Question:easy
A patient complains of painful blisters around the angle of the mouth. Identify the condition.
A patient complains of painful blisters around the angle of the mouth. Identify the condition.
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Recurrent grouped vesicles right on the lip suggest a herpes simplex cold sore.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Herpes labialis
- Herpangina
- Herpes zoster
- Epstein-Barr
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The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Location plus morphology nails it. Tight clusters of small painful blisters sitting on the lip and its angle are the classic cold sore, herpes labialis from HSV-1. A prodrome of burning or itching before the vesicles appear is a useful giveaway.
Rule out the rest: herpangina puts its vesicles and shallow ulcers on the soft palate and tonsillar area (back of the mouth), not on the outer lip. Herpes zoster erupts in a single dermatome and would not be confined to the mouth corner. Epstein-Barr virus drives glandular fever with exudative tonsillitis and posterior cervical nodes, again no lip vesicles.
Natural history pearl: the virus stays latent in the trigeminal ganglion and reactivates with stress, sunlight or fever, recurring on the same lip site; recurrences become less frequent after the mid-thirties. Ref: NCBI/PMC2602638.
Rule out the rest: herpangina puts its vesicles and shallow ulcers on the soft palate and tonsillar area (back of the mouth), not on the outer lip. Herpes zoster erupts in a single dermatome and would not be confined to the mouth corner. Epstein-Barr virus drives glandular fever with exudative tonsillitis and posterior cervical nodes, again no lip vesicles.
Natural history pearl: the virus stays latent in the trigeminal ganglion and reactivates with stress, sunlight or fever, recurring on the same lip site; recurrences become less frequent after the mid-thirties. Ref: NCBI/PMC2602638.
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