Cutaneous manifestations in childhood staphylococcal sepsis

In this article, the clinical and laboratory findings of six (15%) cases of cutaneous manifestations of 39 patients with sepsis caused by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were reviewed retrospectively. Our purpose was to determine the cutaneous manifestations in patients with sepsis caused by S. aureus. In our study, four patients had maculopapular and/or petechial/purpuric rashes, and two had erythematous lesions (one of them also had pustular lesions, and the other had furuncles). Aside from these, all patients had one or more systemic involvement such as bronchopneumonia, arthritis, osteomyelitis, or cardiac involvement. In conclusion, our findings suggest that there are no skin findings specific to staphylococcal sepsis and that pulmonary infections appear to have a high correlation with cutaneous findings, because all of our patients had evidence of bronchopneumonia. The mortality of staphylococcal sepsis associated with cutaneous findings appears to be high.