Dermatologic Diseases Presenting with Pigmentation Disorders in Children: A Single Center Experience

Abstract

Background: To determine the incidence and demographic characteristics of skin diseases presenting with hyperpigmentation in children applying to the dermatology department. Methods: A total of 2815 children between the ages of 0 to 16 who applied to the dermatology clinic with the complaints of hyperpigmentation disorders were evaluated. The age, gender, socioeconomic status, place of residence and demographic characteristics of children with abnormal pigmentation skin lesions were investigated. Results: A total of 2815 children applied to the dermatology clinic during the study period. Of these patients 1491 were female (53%) and 1324 were male (47%). Of these 266 (9.4%) were diagnosed with skin disorders presenting with hyperpigmention. The causes of hyperpigmentation in these patients were was follows; pityriasis alba (2.6%), melanocytic nevus (2.1%), vitiligo (1.8%) postinflammatory hyperpigmentation (0.5%), and postinflammatory hypopigmentation (0.5%). According to the gender, p.alba, vitiligo, Becker nevus, acanthosis nigricans, tuberosclerosis and albinism were seen more in boys and nevus depigmentosus ephelis, postinflammatory hyperpigmentation/hypopigmentation and melanocytic nevus were seen more in the girls. Pitriyazis versicolor was seen equally in both genders. According to age groups, melanocytis nevus were found to be more frequent between the ages of 0-2 and 12-16, whereas pityrsasis versicolor was more frequent in ages 12-16 and P. alba in the 3-11 age group. Conclusions: There are quite a substantial number of pigmentation diseases occurring in children. Early diagnosis and treatment are important because although these diseases mainly cause cosmetic problems, they can decrease the quality of life. Here, we attempted to define the demographic characteristics of diseases presenting with disorders in pigmentation in children.