European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: It is difficult to ascertain reliably the overall incidence and prevalence of the various cutaneous infections in different parts of the world because studies of one region of the country may not be a true representation of the overall disease pattern of that country; furthermore, incidence and prevalence figures may only will be representative of the population sampling, which may have associated risk factors for infection. Most of the studies done in this field are dealt with adults or with a specific clinical form of dermatophytosis. Only few surveys were performed in pediatric age group. Aim: To study clinical presentation of superficial dermatophytic infection in paediatric patients in tertiary health care centre. Methods: It is an observational type of study.  The present study was conducted in Department of Dermatology, Rajshree Medical & Research Institute, Bareilly, from 1st march 2021 to 28th February 2022. Results: Majority of the study population belonged to 11-15 years (48.7%) followed by 15-18 years (24.1%), 0-5 years (16.6%) and 5-10 years (10.6%). The mean age of the study population was 9.16±4.241 (0-18) years. There were 47.7% males and 52.3% females. Itching was present among most of the patients that is 226 patients had this complaint (95.3%). The most commonly affected sites was Groin (47.2%) followed by Trunk (29.9%), buttocks (29.1%), upper limbs (24.0%), Face (6.7%), Scalp (4.6%), lower limbs (4.6%) and Nails (0.4%). The predominant lesion type was Plaque (43.5%) followed by Others like  Pustules, erosions, excoriation, crusting (29.5%), Plaque with papules (16.5%), Plaque, Others (4.6%), Papules, Others (4.6%) and Macule being the least lesion type (1.3%). The most common lesion feature found in most of the study group was discoloration (94.1%). The most common diagnosis was T. corporis (29.1%) followed by T. corporis+ T. cruris (28.3%), T. cruris (22.4%). Limitations: The study was an observational study done at the first visit of the patient in OPD with no follow-up. This was major limitation of the study, since the further change of course of presentation was not noted. Also the patients undergoing any other treatment with dermatophytosis were not studied. Conclusion: Total 237 patients of superficial dermatophytosis were included in the study, out of which mean age was 9.16 ± 4.241 with female predominance (52.3%). Maximum patients were from middle school (48.9%) corresponding to age and belonged to middle class (70.5%) socioeconomic status. Common presenting complaints were itching (95.3%), affected site was groin (47.2%) and annular plaque was predominant type of lesion. The most common made in our study was T. Cruris (47.2%). More studies should be carried out in future on large scale so that this study can be corroborated to evidence. Along with that, alternation in dosage for pediatric age group should be studied