Pediatric Inpatients Requesting Dermatology Consultation in a Tertiary Care Hospital: Retrospective Analysis of 614 Patients

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the reasons for the dermatology consult of patients who were hospitalized in a pediatric clinic in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: Analyzed in this study were 614 patients, aged 0-18 years, who were hospitalized in pediatrics clinics and requested dermatology consultation, between January 2014 and June 2020. The ages, genders of the patients, services requesting consultation, dermatological diagnoses, procedure and examinations required to reach the diagnosis, and treatment modality were obtained from the hospital database retrospectively. Data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used for the analysis. Results: A total of 71 different dermatological diagnoses were observed according to the International Classification of Disease 11. The patients who were given only medical advice without a diagnosis were grouped under the category of “rash, unspecified” and this was the leading category, with (16.1%) patients. The second category was “exanthematous drug eruption” with (8%) patients, followed by “graft versus host disease” with (6.5%) patients, “dermatitis or eczema, unspecified” with (5%) patients. Most of the patients were diagnosed with clinical findings, skin biopsy was implemented for (17.7%) patients and (5.5%) patients were asked for bacterial or fungus cultures. Moreover, (15%) patients were requested to have further procedures. Topical treatment was applied to (47.9%) of the patients, systemic treatment to (9%), local and systemic treatment together to (22%), one of excision, cryosurgery, and electrocautery to (1.5%), while no treatment was given to (19.7%). Conclusion: The results obtained in the current study showed that the reasons for dermatology clinic consultations by pediatric patients in different centers may vary and which diseases are these reasons in a tertiary health care center cross-sectionally.