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Within the first days of life, 10 infants, of 32 weeks' gestational age or less, began 2 weeks of treatment with a semipermeable wound dressing over a small area of skin. The effects of the dressing on transepidermal water loss and cutaneous microflora were evaluated. Transepidermal water loss from the semipermeable dressing-treated skin was significantly less than that from the untreated skin immediately after placement of the dressing (8.1 ± 1.8 g/m2 · h-1 vs 17.7 ± 3.5 g/m2 · h-1, P < .0001). The normal accelerated skin maturation process that occurs in these infants continued beneath the semipermeable dressing. The number of gram-negative bacilli or other bacteria did not increase beneath the semipermeable dressing beyond that seen on the untreated site. Malassezia furfur was found only on the control site, never beneath the semipermeable dressing. According to results of this preliminary study, a semipermeable dressing can be safely used in premature infants and the use of a semipermeable dressing may decrease the excessive transepidermal water loss associated with prematurity.

Intrauterine-acquired neonatal herpes simplex virus infection is a severe, often life-threatening infection that has a wide spectrum of clinical presentations. We describe a 31-week-gestation male who had a rarely reported epidermolysis bullosa—like clinical presentation. He acquired herpes simplex virus type II in utero secondary to a primary maternal infection that occurred on the knee. A review of the infection, the need for early therapy, and the prognosis are presented.

We conducted a 6-week randomized, blinded study that compared mometasone furoate 0.1% cream, applied once daily, and hydrocortisone 1.0% cream, applied twice daily, in 48 children with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis. Mometasone furoate, a moderate-potency steroid, produced significantly greater improvement than the low-potency hydrocortisone used twice daily. The difference in therapeutic response was particularly evident in patients with involvement of more than 25% of their body surface area. Morning plasma Cortisol levels were assayed before treatment, after 1 week of therapy, and at the end of the clinical trial. Plasma Cortisol levels were transiently suppressed in one child who was treated with hydrocortisone and in none of the children treated with mometasone.

We studied the effectiveness of clobetasol propionate ointment 0.05% in experimentally induced Rhus dermatitis. Clobetasol rapidly decreased the vesiculation at each treated site, although the effect was most prominent at the site to which clobetasol was applied the earliest, that is, at 12 hours after exposure to Rhus extract. On the basis of this experimental model, clobetasol propionate ointment 0.05% may be effective therapy for naturally occurring Rhus dermatitis.

The occurrence of multiple cutaneous cylindromas constitutes an uncommon autosomal dominant cutaneous disorder whose associations usually are limited to other cutaneous tumors. We report here the first case of a patient with multiple cutaneous cylindromas, who concurrently had a benign lung cylindroma with histologic features identical to her skin lesions. She also had a family history of early death from cardiac disease.