ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the frequency of common etiologies of erythroderma in patients visiting a tertiary care hospital in Karachi
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, in a period from May, 2015 to November, 2015,190 patients attending the outpatient department or admitted in the dermatology ward of Civil Hospital, Karachi and fulfilling inclusion criteria[15 to 60 years of age, male/female, having erythroderma for 1week or more], were enrolled in this study after taking written informed consent. History taking and physical examination were done to assess etiology. Skin biopsy was sent for histopathology
Results: The age range was from 15 to 60 years [mean age 48.6 + 16.9 years] while mean duration of disease was 17.9 + 9.1 days. Out of 190 patients, 116 [61%] were male and 74 [39%] were female. The most common etiology was eczema 73 [38.4%] followed by psoriasis 51 [26.8%], drugs 45 [23.7%] and lymphoma 21[11.1%]
Conclusion: Eczema was the commonest etiology seen in our study. The different etiologies of erythroderma in our patients were not similar to those reported from other parts of the world