A Clinical Study of Inpatients with Eczema Herpeticum

Jang, Seok Hwan; Yun, Sook Jung; Lee, Jee Bum; Kim, Seong Jin; Lee, Seung Chul; Won, Young Ho

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Eczema herpeticum (EH) is caused by viral infection, usually with the herpes simplex virus (HSV), and most often occurs in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). Although EH is a common dermatosis, predisposing factors are largely unknown, and there have been few clinical and epidemiologic studies in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated the clinical characteristics of inpatients diagnosed with EH over the last 10 years.
METHODS
We reviewed the medical records of 62 patients who were diagnosed with EH and were hospitalized at the Chonnam National University Hospital in Gwangju from January 2004 to July 2014.
RESULTS
The ratio of male to female patients with EH was about 2:1, and the mean age at onset of EH was 25.3 (+/-17.3) years. In this study, AD (67.7%) was the most common preceding skin disorder, followed by nummular eczema (6.5%), and seborrheic dermatitis (3.2%). Patients with EH had other systemic symptoms such as fever (22.6%), headache (4.8%), and lymphadenopathy (4.8%). Patients with recurrent infection of HSV had longer hospitalizations compared to those with primary infection (9.35 vs. 6.49 days), but the difference was not significant (p=0.269). There was no significant difference in the number of hospitalized days between patients receiving antiviral agents vs. antibiotics (p=0.153). Systemic steroids were administered in 66.1% patients, which had no correlation with the number of hospitalized days (p=0.203).
CONCLUSION
The present retrospective analysis contributes to our understanding of the clinical characteristics of EH.