Pattern of Inpatient Dermatology Consultations in a Tertiary Care Centre from Northern India

The importance of dermatology inpatient consultation is of significant importance yet is not well documented.

To retrospectively analyse the spectrum of dermatology inpatient consultations from the various departments and to document the most commonly occurring dermatological disorders from each speciality.

This study was done in an 800 bedded premier teaching hospital in Ludhiana, Punjab, North Western India. It was an audit of inpatient referrals to the dermatology department from January 2014 to August 2014. We analysed the spectrum of dermatological disorders in relation to the various specialities, demographic profile and age groups.

The data was entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed using SPSS Version 21. Descriptive statistics, frequency and proportions were used.

Of the 559 in-patients, 60% were males. The majority of the patients belonged to age group 51-60 years (25.9%). The departments most commonly requesting for dermatology consultations were Medicine (27.7%), Neurology (9.7%), Cardiology (8.8%), Urology (7%), Haematology (6.4%), Nephrology (6.1%), Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (5.4%), General Surgery (5.2%), Orthopaedics (5%), Gynaecology and Neurosurgery (2.9%) and Paediatrics (2.7%). The commonest dermatological diagnoses for which consultations were sought were eczematous dermatitis (12.9%), superficial dermatophytosis (12.3%), drug reactions (8.9%) and viral skin infections (8.5%).

Dermatology consultations offer a significant role in diagnosis and management of the in-patients from various clinical speciality departments. There is a significant need of inter-departmental dermatology consultations which help to decrease morbidity and improve the quality of the patient's hospital stay. Knowledge about the pattern of dermatoses in the inpatients can help the primary clinician to recognize when to seek dermatology consultation on a priority basis.