Factitial dermatitis in the hospital setting.

Factitial Dermatitis (FD) is a notoriously difficult disease to diagnose, as patients produce self-induced cutaneous lesions and provide an inadequate or inaccurate history. We performed a cross-sectional study, querying an inpatient consultation database of all patients admitted to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center from 2012 to 2017 with a dermatologic ICD as a discharge diagnosis. Our exhaustive keyword search produced 189 candidates. Consult notes were thoroughly examined, and 32 patients were found to meet case definition of FD. Our analysis of this cohort revealed a significantly greater proportion of cases in the female population. Lesions were more often found to involve the skin on the upper extremities. Isolated secondary skin changes such as erosions, ulcers and excoriations in the absence primary morphologies were also significant in our cohort. As FD is difficult to identify, further understanding of its presentation pattern will decrease time to diagnosis and improve both hospital resource allocation and patient care.

Evaluation of Dundee and ALT-70 predictive models for cellulitis in 56 patients who underwent tissue culture.

Nonpurulent cellulitis lacks a gold standard to distinguish noninfectious sources of inflammation. Two models have been created that evaluate cellulitis. The ALT-70 model was created to reduce the overdiagnosis of cellulitis and provide clinical direction. The Dundee classification was developed to grade the severity of previously diagnosed cases of cellulitis and enhance treatment and clinical outcomes. We analyzed a dataset of 56 patients who were admitted to the OSU Wexner Medical Center with a primary admission diagnosis of cellulitis. Each patient underwent extensive tissue culture sampling to identify potential pathogens. Patients were scored using both models, then evaluated based on the positive tissue culture and skin and soft tissue infection. In both models, we found low sensitivity and specificity to predict patients with positive tissue culture cellulitis. Determination of a gold standard for classification of cellulites is important to improve future diagnosis and risk models. We recommend further study to develop a scalable consensus standard in the diagnosis of nonpurulent cellulitis.

Patient Care Outcomes in Hospitalized Patients with Acute Generalized Exanthematous Pustulosis: A Cross-Sectional Database Study.

BACKGROUND: Current understanding of the etiology, natural history, and outcomes of acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) has been limited, with most available studies consisting of small or heterogenous cohorts. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to further characterize associated factors and disease outcomes of AGEP. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was employed with formal inclusion and causality criteria. Patients were identified from an inpatient database at an academic medical center, including 65 patients with AGEP and a control group of 61 patients with non-severe cutaneous adverse reactions. RESULTS: Increased age and body mass index (BMI) were associated with higher risk of AGEP (p < 0.001). Length of stay was longer for both the overall AGEP cohort (13.1 days) and a subcohort with a primary discharge diagnosis of AGEP (9.7 days) compared with the control group (3.6 days) [p < 0.001]. Patients with AGEP were more likely to be discharged to a long-term care facility compared with control patients (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: AGEP was associated with longer length of hospitalization, higher rates of discharge to long-term care facilities, and higher mortality compared with non-severe cutaneous adverse drug reaction (SCAR) medication reactions. Future research should examine the association between morbid obesity and this particular drug reaction, and the possibility of decreasing hospitalization length given the relatively low risk of mortality among patients with AGEP.