Book Review

Pediatric Dermatology and Dermatopathology: A Text and Atlas

N Engl J Med 1994; 330:147January 13, 1994

Article

Pediatric Dermatology and Dermatopathology: A Text and Atlas
Vol. II. By Ruggero Caputo, A. Bernard Ackerman, and Evita Q. Sison-Torre. 505 pp., illustrated. Philadelphia, Lea and Febiger, 1993. $165. ISBN: 0-8121-1314-4

Pediatric Dermatology and Dermatopathology is the second in a series that will total four volumes. Volume I, published in 1990, contained 28 topics, beginning with acanthosis nigricans and ending with cutis marmorata telangiectatica congenita. Volume II contains 32 different pediatric entities, again in alphabetical order -- a system that militates against the inclusion of newly described entities or the correction of major omissions (e.g., acropustulosis of infancy, albinism, alopecia mucinosa, Fox-Fordyce disease, and graft-versus-host disease) in volume I or II. The authors have kept this volume consistent in format with the first, organizing each pediatric dermatologic disorder in terms of age of onset, frequency, associations, complications, clinical differential diagnosis, laboratory findings, histopathological findings, histopathological differential diagnosis, etiology, pathogenesis, management, course, prognosis, and lowest common denominators for diagnosis.

The authors have done a superb job of blending an atlas with a detailed textbook that is for the most part up to date. The clinical and histopathological color plates are spectacular. Indeed, the color is so vivid that one feels tempted to palpate the plates themselves. This book should be a valuable reference for physicians in various specialties and at differing levels of sophistication, including medical students; family practitioners; residents in pediatrics, dermatology, or pathology; and attending physicians in those specialties.

I am not sure that negative comments about the book are warranted. However, if I were to be critical of anything in volume II, several areas should be mentioned. The sections on management are brief and review only some of the available treatment options. Since the chief focus of this book is histopathology, why would one include topics that lack specific histopathological findings, such as diaper dermatitis, child abuse, figurate erythemas, and hand-foot-and-mouth disease? The section on dermatophytosis leaves out points that should have been emphasized, such as the difficulty of diagnosing tinea faciei, the increasing incidence of tinea pedis in preadolescent children, the importance of checking family members of children with tinea capitis for tinea corporis, and subclinical carriage of spores by family members; moreover, scarring is not always an expected sequela of a kerion. It is unfortunate that the authors and publisher did not feel an index was important, since there is so much sound information presented on each subject. An index would have made finding specific facts less difficult.

I would not want anyone to give a great deal of weight to the few criticisms I have made. This volume, as well as volume I and the next two volumes, are a must for your personal library. There is no other work devoted to the subject of pediatric dermatopathology. Therefore, this book sets the standard for all others to come -- and a high standard, at that. I congratulate the authors on a job well done.

Paul J. Honig, M.D.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104