[Erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp. A new entity or a variant of pyoderma vegetans]

We report on a 69-year-old woman suffering from an erosive pustular and crusted lesion of the scalp having persisted over years. There could not be found any external cause, and a large number of different physical and medicamental therapies failed. Prompt healing was achieved, however, after a low serum zinc level was corrected by a zinc preparation administered orally.-The dermatosis described closely resembles the so-called "erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp". A search of the earlier dermatological literature supported our view that this is not a new disease, but rather a variant of pyoderma vegetans, a disease showing extremely variable clinical and histopathological features.