Pruritis in all family members

Kalyani Pillai; Sandhya Acharya

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IMAGES IN CLINICAL PRACTICE

Pruritis in all family members

Kalyani Pillai¹, Sandhya Acharya².

¹Department of Pediatrics, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, Kerala, India,
²Department of Dermatology, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, Kerala, India.

ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
Dr Kalyani Pillai, Santhwanam, Mallika Garden, Chittilappilly P O, Thrissur, Kerala 680551. India.
Email: pillaiskpillai@dataone.in

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A 7 year old boy was brought to the pediatric dermatology clinic with intense pruritic lesions over forearm, neck, legs {exposed areas} since 1 week. There is history of similar lesions in mother and sibling. The lesions were linear, vesicular, oozing. On enquiry, all of them were involved in stacking up of firewood one week back.

What is the diagnosis?

Phytodermatosis. It is an allergic contact dermatitis commonly missed and rarely diagnosed. Plants contain some oily chemical resin that is absorbed quickly into the skin. The eruption is characterized by redness, papules, vesicles and linear streaking. The eruption usually appears within two days but may occur within eight hours and rarely is delayed longer than ten days. The rash will frequently break out in stages depending on the length of exposure and the amount of resin on the skin. Treatment depends on how severe the reaction is and is usually symptomatic

Authors contribution: KP researched the article and drafted and wrote the manuscript. SA provided the clinical material and reviewed the manuscript.

Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the help rendered by Dr S Criton, Professor of Dermatology and Dr V K Parvathy, Professor of Pediatrics in diagnosis of the case and in publishing this article.

E- published: April 2010, Vol 7 Issue 4 Art No. 25