The pattern of skin diseases in Karbala city: A retrospective study

Abstract

Background: Knowing the patterns of skin diseases is a vital step in the education of primary health care physicians and in planning curriculum for teaching medical students.Moreover, these types of studies are necessary to provide adequate therapeutic services to those suffering from these diseases.Objective: To determine the characteristic pattern of various skin disorders for all the patients who visited the dermatology outpatient clinic at Al Husseiny Teaching Hospital, in Karbala City. Patients and methods: A retrospective and descriptive study was conducted in order to describe the skin diseases patterns. The medical records of patients attending the dermatology outpatient clinic from January 2009 to January 2010 were reviewed. Diagnosis was mainly based on clinical findings, but supplemented by further investigations when needed.
Results: A total of 4169 patients were seen during this period and theages ranged from4 days to 85 years. They represent 30 .4 % of the total patients visitedthe outpatient clinics at our hospital .There were 2267 (54.4%) males and 1902(45.62%) females giving a male: female ratio of 1.2:1. The highest number of people in this series was between the ranges 5-35 years of age making 61.4% of the total. The top six skin diseases were eczema/ dermatitis (28%), viral infections (20.5%), Bacterial infections (13.7%), parasitic diseases (10.8%), Acne vulgaris (7.02%) and Urticaria (6.23%).The major disorder in males and female was eczema/ dermatitis (15.3 %) and (12.7%) respectively
Conclusions: Our results showed that eczema/dermatitis, is the most common disease in both male and female followed by infection especially viral infection and parasitic disease in our region. Emphasis should be placed on this group of common skin diseases at all levels of health care system and should implement appropriate training programs for diagnosis and management to decrease referrals to dermatology clinics.