Journal of Dermatology and Dermatologic Diseases

Background: A fern pattern on the skin of a victim of lightning strike is a rare, but pathognomic finding. Forensic pathologists who are not trained in this specialty might attach little medico-legal importance to such a cutaneous lesion as a result of lightning.
Objective: To highlight an unusual case of lightning in the Transkei region of South Africa.
Case history: ZG, a 25 year old woman, suffered a filigree burn caused by a lightning strike in 2000. She has a permanent superficial rare burn of a feathering variety on the antero-lateral aspect of her right leg. It resembles a ‘fern pattern’ in appearance. At the time of the lightning strike she was in a rondavel and lucky to escape. She was admitted to Mthatha General Hospital where she was unconscious for two days. She was brought to the hospital by police. She regained consciousness and was discharged after three days. The history of injury, physical findings, mechanism of injury and psychosocial aspects has been described in this report.
Conclusion: The problem of lightning deaths where women are implicated as a witch causing the lightning strike is common in the Transkei region of South Africa.

Background and objective: There is no evidence of efficacy for concomitant use of benzoyl peroxide (BPO) gel, adapalene gel, and antimicrobial agents for external treatment of the inflammatory phase of acne vulgaris, and there is little evidence for the utility of BPO gel for the maintenance phase after remission of inflammatory acne. Therefore, we investigated the effect of concomitant use of BPO gel, adapalene gel, and an antimicrobial agent for topical use for inflammatory-phase acne vulgaris and the efficacy of BPO gel for the maintenance phase.
Design and methods: The subjects were patients with moderate to severe acne vulgaris (6 to 30 inflammatory skin eruptions on one side of the face). A randomized 3 group parallel comparison study of inflammatory-phase treatment (step 1) was performed, followed by a randomized 2 group parallel comparison study of maintenancephase treatment (step 2).
Results: In the inflammatory phase, both inflammatory and non-inflammatory skin eruptions were improved by concomitant use of BPO 2.5% gel+clindamycin 1%, concomitant use of BPO gel 2.5%+adapalene gel 0.1% and concomitant use of adapalene gel 0.1%+clindamycin 1%, respectively. For the maintenance phase, both adapalene 0.1% gel and BPO 2.5% gel were effective.
Conclusion: These results confirm that concomitant treatment with BPO gel, adapalene gel, and an antimicrobial agent for topical use is useful for the inflammatory phase of severe facial acne vulgaris, and that treatment with BPO 2.5% gel alone is useful for the maintenance phase in Japanese acne patients.

We evaluate correlation between detection of Trichomonas tenax and Entamoeba gingivalis in oral cavity and patient age. It was found that: The presence of E. gingivalis and T. tenax is not related to the gender of the subjects (p-value ≥ 0.05, the relation is not statistically significant); The relation was found with the presence of E. gingivalis (1 test) with age (p-value=0.004): the presence of E. gingivalis finds the most prevalent in the age groups 22-35 years old, 61-75 years old, 76-80 years old. This indicates that the presence of E. gingivalis is correlated with the age. The maximal percent of subjects with the presence of E. gingivalis was found in the age group 61-75 years old, and 76-80 years old.

Background: Surgical excision is the treatment of choice for basal cell carcinoma. Complete removal is the key to cure.
Objective: To determine the utility of intraoperative frozen section in basal cell carcinoma surgery of high risk cases on the head and neck to achieve margin clearance.
Study Design: Prospective descriptive study Place and duration of study: MH Rawalpindi, Army Medical College – February 2015 – May 2018.
Methodology: All patients of high risk basal cell carcinoma, on the head and neck, undergoing excision and repair after intraoperative frozen section were included in the study. In addition to demographic profile of the patient, site and clinical type of the lesions were recorded. Histopathology report indicating margin clearance was noted.
Results: A total of 96 patients with basal cell carcinoma were operated upon with intraoperative frozen section. Five patients had recurrent basal cell carcinoma whereas 91 had primary lesions. Fifty four (56.3%) patients showed all margins clear of tumor on frozen section whereas 42 (43.8%) patients required further excision of one or more margins based on the result of frozen section.
Conclusion: Intra operative frozen section helped conserve skin in addition to saving 42 (43.8%) patients from a second surgical procedure.

Fundaments: Inflammatory Linear Verrucous Epidermal Nevus (ILVEN) is an uncommon condition, which presents early in childhood as erythematous pruritic papules or plaques in an asymmetrical pattern. The lesions tend to appear on the left side of the body and are extremely resistant to treatment, which make this disease a psychological and social burden on the children and parents alike.