Disease Information for Neonatal Cephalic Pustulosis

Neonatal Cephalic Pustulosis Continued Is Common Neonatal Cephalic Pustulosis (Neonatal Acne) Triggered by Malassezia sympodialis? Pascal Niamba, MD; François Xavier Weill, MD; Jean Sarlangue, MD; Christine Labrèze, MD; Bernard Couprie, MD; Alain Taïeb, MD : Neonatal Cephalic Pustulosis ContinuedIs Common Neonatal Cephalic Pustulosis (Neonatal Acne) Triggered by Malassezia sympodialis? A type of neonatal cephalic pustulosis that is clinically similar to classic neonatal acne recently has been linked to Malassezia furfur infection; To correlate the mycological and clinical findings in neonates with cephalic pustulosis, we carried out a prospective case-control study in a neonatal unit from February to April 1997 using new techniques for classifying Malassezia species; Nineteen patients with cephalic pustulosis and 19 controls younger than 45 days were studied among 161 consecutively hospitalized infants; Cultures from swabs and smears of pustules were obtained from patients, and swabs from healthy site-matched skin were obtained from controls; Three patients were excluded from the study because another cause of pustulosis was found; A blank sampling of pustules was obtained from 2 patients; Test results for 6 of 16 patients were positive for Malassezia sympodialis on contralateral nonpustular skin, and 4 of those patients also had positive cultures for M sympodialis; Cultures from 6 of 19 controls were positive (4 for M furfur and 2 for M sympodialis ); The prevalence of Malassezia species increased with age, and the severity of the pustulosis was correlated with the isolation of M sympodialis;

Conclusion Our data suggest that M sympodialis triggers the severe form of common cephalic pustulosis in infants with this benign disorder

(Edit)