Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis

Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis is a rash of small, red papules and nodules in the skin that may appear two to four weeks after inoculation by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a previously infected and immunocompetent individual.

It is also known as "prosector's wart" because it was a common occupational disease of prosectors, the preparers of dissections and autopsies. Reinfection by tuberculosis via the skin, therefore, can result from accidental exposure to human tuberculous tissue in physicians, pathologists and laboratory workers; or to tissues of other infected animals, in veterinarians, butchers, etc.

TVC is one of the many forms of cutaneous tuberculosis, such as the tuberculous chancre (which results from the cutaneous inoculation in immunocompetent people without previous exposure), and the reactivation cutaneous tuberculosis (the most common form, which appears in previously infected patients). Other forms of cutaneous tuberculosis are: lupus vulgaris, scrofuloderma, lichen scrofulosorum, erythema induratum and the papulonecrotic tuberculid.

It was described by René Laennec in 1826.