title: The spectrum of skin disease among Indian children.
abstract: Skin diseases in children are encountered frequently and their characterization is essential for the preparation of academic, research and health plans. A retrospective study was designed to evaluate the epidemiologic features of pediatric dermatoses in India. The setting was a tertiary care referral center in India (Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital, New Delhi) during January 1997 to December 2003. A total of 30,078 children less than 12 years of age with 32,341 new dermatoses were recorded, with a male to female ratio of 1.07:1. Most of the disease was seen in the 1- to 5-year age group (44.94%). The most common skin diseases were infections and infestations (47.15%) consisting of bacterial infections (58.09%) and scabies (21.54%), followed by eczemas (26.95%), infantile seborrheic dermatitis, scabies, and pityriasis alba. Other unique dermatoses in our settings were papular uticaria (3.59%), miliaria (5.46%), postinflammatory pigmentary abnormalities (1.68%), and nutritional deficiency dermatoses (0.45%). A majority of patients were diagnosed clinically and special diagnostic tests were conducted in 2.6% of patients. The most common diagnostic test used was KOH mount (59.2%), followed by skin biopsy (39%). Nearly 90% of patients were seen without any referral and in the remaining, a majority were referred by pediatricians (75%). A majority of patients were diagnosed to have infection followed by dermatitis in our setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and STD, Maulana Azad Medical College and Lok Nayak Hospital, Delhi, India. kabirijdvl@gmail.com
authors.forename: Kabir
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sardana
authors.forename: Supriya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahajan
authors.forename: Rashmi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: Vibhu
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mendiratta
authors.forename: Premanshu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bhushan
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Koranne
authors.forename: Vijay K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Garg
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D001706:Biopsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D012628:Dermatitis, Seborrheic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D004485:Eczema / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009181:Mycoses / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012532:Scabies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology