Five patients who developed systemic sclerosis shortly after episodes of physical trauma.

We describe 5 patients in whom the onset of systemic sclerosis followed shortly after episodes of trauma. The HLA-DR52 allele was common to all these patients. This raises the possibility that trauma may be associated with the onset of the disease in predisposed individuals. If this is the case, it seems likely that it may have advanced the development of the disease rather than being fundamentally responsible for it.