Comparative effect of isotretinoin and etretinate on acne and sebaceous gland secretion.

Isotretinoin (13-cis-retinoic acid) was compared with the aromatic retinoid, etretinate, in patients with severe nodulocystic acne. Evaluation of fifty-six such men receiving 1 mg/kg of one or the other of these two drugs was performed with regard to clinical improvement and change in sebum production. Lesion counting demonstrated a significant improvement in patients receiving isotretinoin, particularly in facial lesions.

Pachyonychia congenita: surgical management of the nail changes.

The fingernails of a woman with pachyonychia congenita were ablated by several different methods. The most effective, most rapidly performed, and most acceptable method was vigorous curettage and electrofulguration of the matrices and beds of the nails. The responses to treatment suggest that the matrix, rather than the bed, is the site from which the abnormality of the nails develops in pachyonychia congenita.

Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn and idiopathic hypercalcemia. Report of a case.

A female infant who was anoxic at birth had lesions of subcutaneous fat necrosis at the age of 16 days. She also had problems with poor feeding, frequent vomiting, and failure to thrive. Hypercalcemia was discovered at the age of 28 days and she died at 11 1/2 weeks despite return of the serum calcium level to normal with oral prednisone therapy and a diet low in calcium and devoid of vitamin D.

Topical clindamycin treatment of acne. Clinical, surface lipid composition, and quantitative surface microbiology response.

A double-blind study has been conducted to examine the effect of topical 1% clindamycin hydrochloride hydrate in a hydroalcoholic vehicle as compared to the effect of the vehicle alone. Fourteen patients applied clindamycin or vehicle alone twice daily for eight weeks. Free fatty acid surface lipid percentages, quantitative bacterial counts, and clinical response were assessed every two weeks.

Solitary actinic porokeratosis.

An 83-year-old man experienced abrupt onset of a solitary lesion of porokeratosis on his bald, actinically damaged scalp. The features in this case are unusual and represent another point in the broad spectrum of lesions characterized by the cornoid lamella of porokeratosis.

Delayed interval delivery of a twin pregnancy.

A twin pregnancy is reported in which a prolonged interval between delivery of twins was accomplished by the use of labor-inhibiting drugs and the placement of a cerevical cerclage. Infants weighting 690 and 1192 g were delivered from a mother with a normal uterus at 27 and 31 weeks' gestation, with survival of the second twin. Pathologic and sonographic findings in the case, philosophies of its management, and a review of the medical literature are presented.