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A unique "hair collar" combined with skin discolorations in the center of a newborn's scalp may indicate underlying neural tube defects and other malformations. Hair collars are raised knobs of skin tissue surrounded by long, thick hair. Researchers confirmed the presence of brain tissue in three of four cases after surgically removing the knobby skin. The family of the fourth patient refused to consent to surgery. The hair collars of two patients were originally thought to be skin cysts. All four patients had a faint wine-colored stain covering the central knob. Imaging scans showed the presence of brain tissue and meninges, brain membranes. Medical staff should be alert to the sign of serious defects often found in children with these hair collars. Extensive testing may be appropriate to avoid medical errors., Objective. To call attention to a cutaneous marker for neural tube closure defects of the scalp, the "hair collar" sign. This finding consists of a ring of long, dark, coarse hair surrounding a midline scalp nodule. Methods and Results. Four children with small congenital scalp nodules and the hair collar sign were studied from the standpoint of clinical findings, radiologic scans, and histology of the excised nodules. All four had an overlying vascular stain in addition to the hair collar. Patients 1 and 2 were found to have encephaloceles, and one had heterotopic brain tissue. The fourth family refused surgery, but the clinical and radiologic findings were consistent with a diagnosis of atretic encephalocele. One infant had agenesis of the corpus callosum and a Dandy-Walker malformation as associated findings. Conclusions. The "hair collar" sign should alert the pediatrician to the possibility of ectopic neural tissue in the scalp and/or underlying central nervous system malformations. Pediatrics 1995; 96:309-313; "hair collar" sign, nodule, congenital, encephalocele, neural tube defect., The skin and the nervous system are both derived from ectoderm. Separation of neural ectoderm from epithelial ectoderm occurs during the third to fifth week of gestation concurrent with the [...]

The purpose of this report is to examine and review the available data on the effectiveness of sunscreens in the prevention of nonmelanoma skin cancers in man. The association of skin cancer and sunlight was first reported by P.G. Unna when he noted an increase in the incidence of cutaneous cancers among persons with sun damaged skin. Many subsequent clinical, epidemiologic and laboratory studies have documented this relation. The incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers is increased in susceptible populations living in geographic latitudes with greater sun exposures