What are Janeway’s lesions?
They are small, flat, nontender, erythematous, or hemorrhagic macules of palms or soles. Like Osler’s
nodes (which are instead swollen, tender, raised, pea sized nodules of finger pads, palms, and soles),
Janeway lesions are seen in bacterial endocarditis. In fact, before the introduction of antibiotics they occurred in 40–90% of endocarditis patients, but nowadays only 10–23% of cases have them. They also
can be seen in SLE, bacteremia without endocarditis, gonococcal sepsis, and marantic endocarditis. They represent either septic emboli or sterile vasculitis, triggered by immune complexes.
They are small, flat, nontender, erythematous, or hemorrhagic macules of palms or soles. Like Osler’s
nodes (which are instead swollen, tender, raised, pea sized nodules of finger pads, palms, and soles),
Janeway lesions are seen in bacterial endocarditis. In fact, before the introduction of antibiotics they occurred in 40–90% of endocarditis patients, but nowadays only 10–23% of cases have them. They also
can be seen in SLE, bacteremia without endocarditis, gonococcal sepsis, and marantic endocarditis. They represent either septic emboli or sterile vasculitis, triggered by immune complexes.