ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: About 90% of patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) are smokers. A crucial eliciting role of smoking appears to be certain. In order to increase the awareness of this avoidable major cause of the disease and to facilitate the recognition of incipient disorder, we propose the more specific term 'smoker's boils' for HS lesions of patients who are smokers. METHOD: Clinical pictures of early lesions are presented. For the exceptional cases occurring in nonsmokers, the traditional name HS, representing an umbrella term, is adequate. RESULT/CONCLUSION: The renaming of HS as smoker's boils has the practical advantage that a correct diagnosis can be made at an incipient stage of the disorder. If patients stop smoking at such an early stage of HS, they most likely have a chance that this devastating disease will not progress.
Subject(s)
Furunculosis/classification , Hidradenitis Suppurativa/classification , Smoking/adverse effects , Furunculosis/etiology , Furunculosis/pathology , Hidradenitis Suppurativa/etiology , Hidradenitis Suppurativa/pathology , HumansABSTRACT
Treatment of anal furunculosis in dogs is often unsatisfactory and may be associated with significant recurrence and complications. This may be compounded by the simultaneous presence of colitis in affected animals. Clinical signs associated with colitis and anal furunculosis may be similar, including faecal tenesmus, dyschezia and haematochezia. To examine the incidence of concurrent anal furunculosis and colitis, colonic biopsies were collected from 18 dogs referred for treatment of anal furunculosis. Nine dogs (50 per cent) had a histopathological diagnosis of colitis. Clinical signs more indicative of colitis than anal furunculosis (increased frequency of defecation, mucus in faeces and diarrhoea) were not observed more frequently in dogs with confirmed colitis compared with those with furunculosis alone. Therefore, while an association between colitis and anal furunculosis may exist, clinical signs alone cannot be used as an indicator of the presence of colitis in cases of anal furunculosis. The authors recommend that colonic biopsies should be undertaken in all dogs presented with anal furunculosis. Whether specific treatment of colitis in dogs with histopathological evidence of colitis improves the outcome of treatment for anal furunculosis awaits further study.
