Elephantiasis

Not to be confused with Lymphatic filariasis.

Elephantiasis, often incorrectly called elephantitis, is the enlargement and hardening of limbs or body parts due to tissue swelling (edema).^[1][2] It is characterised by edema, hypertrophy, and fibrosis of skin and subcutaneous tissues, due to obstruction of lymphatic vessels (lymphedema).^[2] It may affect the genitalia.^[2] The term elephantiasis is often used in reference to symptoms caused by parasitic worm infections,^[1][2] but may refer to a variety of diseases that swell parts of the subject's body to exceptionally massive proportions.^[2]

Elephantiasis
Elephantiasis of the legs due to filariasis.
Specialty	Infectious disease, general surgery
Symptoms	Swelling of the skin

Cause

Some conditions that present with elephantiasis include the following:

• Elephantiasis nostras, due to longstanding chronic lymphangitis.^{[citation needed]}
• Elephantiasis tropica (known as lymphatic filariasis), caused by a number of parasitic worms, particularly Wuchereria bancrofti. More than 120 million people, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia, are affected.^[3]
• Nonfilarial elephantiasis (or podoconiosis), an immune disease affecting the lymph vessels^{[citation needed]}
• Leishmaniasis^[2]
• Elephantiasis, Grade 3 lymphedema, which may occur in people with breast cancer^[4]
• Genital elephantiasis, result of lymphogranuloma venereum^{[citation needed]}
• Proteus syndrome, a genetic disorder best known as the condition possibly experienced by Joseph Merrick, the so-called Elephant Man^{[citation needed]}

Other causes may include the following:

• Repeated streptococcal infection^[2]
• Lymphadenectomy^[2]
• Hereditary birth defects^[2]
• Pretibial myxedema

Other diseases, such as the rare Klippel–Trénaunay syndrome, can initially be misdiagnosed as elephantiasis.