Spectrum of Pediatric Dermatoses in The Pediatric Outpatient Clinic of a Rural Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Skin diseases in the pediatric population are common all over the world including rural and urban areas. There is variation in the pattern and presentation of Dermatoses, with eczemas being the most common skin disorder in developountries and infections and infestations in the developing countries.

Aims and Objectives: i) To study the spectrum of various dermatoses in infants and children attending pediatric outpatient clinic. ii) To study the pattern of common Dermatological conditions affecting the pediatric population of different age groups. Material & Methods: It was an observational retrospective database study of the spectrum of various dermatoses in infants and children attending pediatric outpatient clinic over past 6 months from July 2016 to December 2016. We included all patients coming with skin disorders to the pediatrics outpatient department.

Results: The entire data was entered and cleaned in MS Excel before its statistical analysis. Among 2078 pediatric skin patients attending the Dermatology OPD, 597 cases were Infectious and 1481 cases were Non infectious. Males outnumbered the females. The distribution of diagnosis of dermatoses differs significantly between male and female cases studied (P-value<0.001). Three most common spectrums of dermatoses were pityriasisinfections (17.5%), Atopic dermatitis (11.4%) and Tinea infections (10.5%). Tinea infections were found to be highest (36.7%) and next common was scabies (24.5%) in Infectious variety followed by Chicken –pox / Varicella (7.7%).

Conclusion: Over all fungal infections, Atopic Dermatitis and Pytiriasis were commonest which commonly occurred in adolescents and teen age groups which could be attributed to hormonal changes, excessive sweating, and bad hygiene.