Dermatology

The request for a neurologic consultation sounded a bit out of the ordinary: "Please evaluate a 22-month-old with odd, shaking movements of the legs."

The request for a neurologic consultation sounded a bit out of the ordinary: "Please evaluate a 22-month-old with odd, shaking movements of the legs."

Minimizing the risk that your patients and employees will acquire a contagious disease in your office demands diligent infection control. This review summarizes guidelines and offers recommendations that can reduce the spread of infection?from what soap and lotion to use for handwashing to what immunizations your office staff need.

Though not as deadly as it once was, HUS remains a serious threat to young children, with a real risk of dangerous complications. Continuing outbreaks caused by E coli O157:H7 highlight the need for accurate diagnosis, intensive supportive care, and effective prevention.

Despite some formidable obstacles, lung transplantation has become an accepted treatment for children with end-stage lung disease caused by conditions such as cystic fibrosis. Do you have a patient who could benefit?

Parents look to pediatricians for advice on bathing their newborn and avoiding diaper rash. Discolorations and lesions (usually benign) are another concern. This review also updates the best way to care for the umbilical cord and addresses special skin-care considerations in premature infants.

A 3-year-old boy has had a rash on his face for at least six months, and no family history of skin disease.

The eosinophil can either enhance or suppress immune function, and it's associated with a wide variety of diseases. Little wonder a finding of eosinophilia often leaves pediatricians scratching their heads.

Arthritis can be caused by a range of viruses or other infectious agents, or develop in the wake of an enteric, genitourinary, or respiratory tract infection. Knowing the possible causes and typical signs and symptoms of infection-related arthritides helps make the diagnosis.

New products of interest to pediatricians

A 7-year-old boy is brought to your office for evaluation of an asymptomatic birthmark on his left buttock. Except for proportional growth, there have been no changes in the lesions.

Children who exceed their expected share of infections conjure up a host of differential diagnoses, from allergies to a primary immune defect. The authors walk you through the workup you need to do to get at the source of the problem.

You have been asked to see a 17-year-old young woman with recurrent life-threatening episodes of asthma. She was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit two days earlier with profound dyspnea, her seventh ICU admission and tenth hospitalization since her asthma symptoms began when she was 9 years old.

The mother of a 16-month-old boy brings him to your office for evaluation of a painful blistering rash on the tip of his right thumb. The rash began two days ago as a single blister.

Alternative therapies seem to thrive where mainstream medicine is most challenged. The focus here is on herbs and supplements used to treat childhood cancers?why they're used, what families hope for from them, and how the evidence stacks up.

Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis are not confined to the gastrointestinal tract. Growth failure, painful joints, and oral or skin lesions are just a few of the nonintestinal signs and symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease that can help you make a diagnosis-- sometimes even before GI problems appear.

A 3-month-old girl is brought to your office with diarrhea, poor weight gain, and hair loss. She was thriving until a month ago, when her parents said she became chronically irritable and developed loose stools and a scaly rash on her face and in the diaper area.

As more and more kids participate in recreational and competitive sports, pediatricians must be able to recognize and treat infectious diseases that commonly plague athletes and to make sound decisions about when athletes may resume play.

This electronic wizard can help you make an unusual diagnosis, generate management guidelines, or locate a support group more quickly and easily than any other resource in your office--if you understand a few basic principles.