New virus SARS‐Cov‐2 infection has spread over the world affecting all daily activities, including functioning of health services. Due to pandemic, many hospitals were ordered to re‐organize their work. The aim of the current report was to evaluate the influence of COVID‐19 pandemic on the hospitalizations at the tertiary dermatology department in south‐west Poland. Two corresponding periods of 2019 and 2020 were compared in aspect of number of hospitalizations, sex, and age profile of inpatients. We clearly showed a significant reduction of hospitalized patients during the pandemic period, with marked reduction of female patients. Moreover, the significant decrease of admissions to dermatology ward was observed within children and patients older than 70 years. Patients with chronic inflammatory dermatoses (eg, atopic dermatitis, eczemas, lichen planus, pityriasis rubra pilaris) were less often hospitalized during the pandemic period. In contrast, patients suffering from dermatitis due to substances taken internally, erysipelas, syphilis, and primary cutaneous lymphomas constituted significantly higher rate of hospitalized subjects in the year 2020.

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Chronic diseases not only have a direct influence on patients’ quality of life, but can also affect the life of family members. The aim of this study was to create the Polish language version of a questionnaire estimating impact of disease on quality of family life: the Family Reported Outcome Measure – 16 (FROM-16). A standard forward and backward translation procedure was used to convert the original English version of FROM-16 into the Polish language. Creation of the Polish version was performed in a group of 30 patients’ family members. The Polish language version of FROM-16 showed very good internal consistency reliability, the Cronbach α coefficient was 0.89. Reproducibility level was established with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.98. The Polish language version of FROM-16 can potentially be used as a tool to assess quality of life of patients’ family members.

Glucocorticoids are widely used in the treatment of many diseases. They have multiple therapeutic applications mainly because of their anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive and antiproliferative activity. Glucocorticoids are broadly used in the therapy of dermatological diseases. Various routes of glucocorticoids administration are known. In the treatment of skin disorders, glucocorticoids are often administered topically. It must be noted that glucocorticoid-induced complications may occur not only as a result of systemic treatment, but also topical application of glucocorticoids to the skin. Commonly reported cutaneous adverse effects resulting from glucocorticoid therapy include changes in facial appearance – rounded appearance of the face, redness, development of stretch marks, difficulty in wound healing, and easy bruising. It needs to be highlighted that glucocorticoids also affect metabolism, water and electrolyte balance, and bones. Therefore, in addition to dermatological disorders, they may also cause many other types of complications. As a result, a degree of caution is advised in the use of drugs of this class. In order to reduce the risk of adverse effects, glucocorticoids should be used at the smallest effective dose for the shortest possible time.