Are You Confident of the Diagnosis? What you should be alert for in the history The classic presentation of a mucous cyst involves a 60-year-old female with a mass on the dorsal aspect of her distal phalanx that she first noted several months ago (rarely are they in multiple locations). Associated with the slowly enlarging…
Are You Confident of the Diagnosis? The diagnosis of median raphe cysts can be made with confidence by history, physical examination, and histologic evaluation. What you should be alert for in the history Patients typically present with one or more asymptomatic nodules on the ventral side of the penis. They may complain of tenderness, pain,…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know Are you sure your patient has molluscum contagiosum? What should you expect to find? Patients with molluscum present with firm, umbilicated shiny papules on the skin. Papules: These present as shiny, often grouped, firm umbilicated papules that most commonly range in size from 1mm to 1cm in diameter…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know Are you sure your patient has herpes simplex virus infection? What should you expect to find? Herpes simplex virus infection may be asymptomatic. For primary infections, symptoms occur approximately 3 days to 1 week after exposure to infection. Patients with primary infection may have a prodrome, which can…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know Are you sure your patient has condyloma accuminata ? What should you expect to find? Most lesions are asymptomatic. Some patients may experience pruritus or burning. Psychological distress and anxiety is common. Lesions typically occur on the external genital skin, including the vulva, penis, scrotum, and perianal area;…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know Are you sure your patient has Kaposi sarcoma? What should you expect to find? Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related Kaposi sarcoma (KS) can have a wide variety of clinical presentations, ranging from localized to diffuse cutaneous disease, mucocutaneous lesions, lymphadenopathy, and/or visceral involvement. The patient may have…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know Are you sure your patient has a disseminated fungal infection? What should you expect to find? Key symptoms of the disease Blastomycosis: (Figure 1) Cutaneous findings should raise suspicion for disseminated disease. Growing lesion(s), may complain of oozing from the lesion(s) Pulmonary symptoms (primary site of infection): greater…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know Are you sure your patient has pruritic papular eruption of HIV (pruritic papular eruption)? What should you expect to find? Pruritus is the most common cutaneous complaint in those infected with HIV, and there are a multitude of causes. Early in the HIV epidemic, pruritic papular eruption (PPE)…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know# Are you sure your patient has Stevens–Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis? What should you expect to find? Stevens–Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are severe reactive blistering diseases along a continuum of disease severity. They are uncommon to rare conditions in the general population with increased incidence…
OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know Are you sure your patient has candidiasis? What should you expect to find? Key symptoms Mucosal Oral (Figure 1) Burning, altered taste sensation Continue Reading Vulvovaginal/balanitis Pruritus, burning Discharge, dyspareunia Cutaneous Intertriginous (Figure 2) Itch, burning, and/or pain Chronic paronychia (Figure 3) Swelling, pain of nail fold; abnormal…
