Hansen’s Disease, a chronic infectious disease, presents with a variety of cutaneous lesions. Being the “great mimicker” that it is, patients may often be misdiagnosed initially, hence the delay in the initiation of the multidrug therapy. Dermoscopy offers an effective, efficient, operator-friendly and non-invasive adjunctive tool in the diagnosis of Hansen’s Disease.

The general objective of the study is to describe the common dermoscopic features according to clinical and histologic findings among all newly diagnosed Hansen’s Disease patients in a tertiary institution within the study period of 6 months.

Purposive sampling was applied to include all newly diagnosed and biopsy-proven Hansen’s Disease patients aged 18 years to 65 years. Participants were clinically examined and dermoscopy was performed on a representative lesion. Other data were collected from chart review, acid fast smear and histopathology reports.

The main dermoscopic feature of Hansen’s Disease is yellowish orange areas observed in all 23 cases studied regardless of the spectrum. This feature can be attributed well to the presence of granuloma formation and inflammation. Another common feature is the presence of white globules and dots which correlates to the presence of the grenz zone, while vascular structures correlate with dilated blood vessels on histopathology.

The major dermoscopic features seen in the study may add to the clinical clues to arrive at a diagnosis of Hansen’s Disease. Although dermoscopy alone is insufficient for the confirmation of Hansen’s Disease, combining it with physical findings would provide additional basis for its clinical diagnosis.