Aetiology, pathogenesis, and clinic of elephantiasis

Elephantiasis arabum is a group of diseases with a characteristic clinical syndrome, pathogenesis, with local pachydermia and hypertrophy of all layers of skin and subcutaneous tissue. A common distinction is made between: 1) sporadic elephantiasis, 2) endemic, 3) congenital, and 4) secondary. If the clinical picture, pathological and anatomical changes and, probably, pathogenesis of this disease have been studied rather well, the same cannot be said about etiology.