Paint tongue

In medicine, patent tongue is a diagnostic sign, not an independent disease symptom. It is one of the typical liver skin signs, as are lacquer lips, spider naevi, palmar and plantar erythema, skin atrophy with telangiectasia, caput medusae and leukonychia (Herold 2017).

A lacquer tongue can be caused by:

• hepatic coma (Michels 2010)
• Liver cirrhosis
• Kawasaki syndrome (Soeder 2025)

Complex pathobiochemical reactions of the liver such as necrosis of the parenchymal cells, metabolic insufficiencies, fibrosis of the liver and cholestasis lead to the so-called liver skin signs (Renz 2026).

In medicine, a shiny, conspicuously reddened tongue is referred to as lacquer tongue (Soeder 2025).

The treatment of patent tongue consists of treating the underlying disease.

1. Herold G et al. (2017) Internal medicine. Herold Publishers 516, 537, 549
2. Kasper D L, Fauci A S, Hauser S L, Longo D L, Jameson J L, Loscalzo J et al. (2015) Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. Mc Graw Hill Education
3. Michels G, Kochanek M (2010) Review of internal intensive care medicine. Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 429
4. Renz H (2026) Practical laboratory diagnostics. Walter de Gruyter Verlag Berlin / Boston 97
5. Soeder J, Antwerpes F (2025) Lacklippen DocCheck Flexikon. Doi: https://flexikon.doccheck.com/en/Lacklippen