The most common cause of Rose Gardener's Disease is ________

Sporothrix schenckii (a fungus) is by far the most common cause of Rose Gardener's Disease. The fungus is found worldwide but the highest rates of this disease are found in Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa. This fungus commonly lives in soil, organic material like rose bushes, sphagnum moss, mine, timbers, tree bark, straw, grasses. This pathogen gets inoculated into the human skin traumatically by briars or thorns. The disease then tracks up the lymphatic drainage system and can be seen as necrotic cutaneous nodules slowly spreading up a limb.

Rose Gardener's disease can have three forms:

• Lymphocutaneous form: This is the most common form characterized by subcutaneous nodules, ulceration, and lymphatic spread

• Fixed cutaneous form: This form is characterized by a single skin lesion without lymphatic spread probably due to prior exposure

• Disseminated form: This form is characterized by mucocutaneous, pulmonary, osteoarticular, genitourinary, and meningeal spread usually seen in immunocompromised patients