[Survey on the activity of hospital departments of dermatology in France].

Introduction: The Collège des Enseignants de Dermatologie de France initiated a study to assess the activity of the departments of dermatology in French hospitals. We report the results of this survey.

Material And Methods: The study was conducted during a randomly selected week in the year 2000. An anonymous questionnaire was sent to all the departments of dermatology in the hospitals in France and was completed for each patient leaving the hospital during that week. The data collected were: the type of establishment, admission method, hospitalization method, type of pathology, motive for hospitalization, length of hospitalization and type of treatment used.

Results: The response rate was of 96 p. 100 for the University hospital centers and 80 p. 100 for the non-university hospitals. The number of patients treated per year was of 65 628 for the University hospitals and of 16,000 for the others. Ninety percent of the hospitalizations corresponded to direct admissions. The pathologies at the origin of the majority of yearly hospitalizations were, for the University hospitals: melanoma, leg ulcers, highly specialized dermatoses and systemic diseases and for the other hospitals: leg ulcers, HIV infection, highly specialized dermatoses and erysipela. The pathologies requiring the greatest number of hospitalization days were melanoma, leg ulcers, erysipela and highly specialized dermatoses.

Discussion: This study shows that the activity in the departments of dermatology is centered on pathologies that are clearly severe in terms of Public Health (oncology, infectious diseases and angiology). It also shows the efforts made for the management of patients in out-patient settings.