Physiologic Skin Changes During Pregnancy.

Abstract

Introducti on: Approximately 90% pregnant women are associated with skin changes. The skin undergoes profound alterati ons during pregnancy as a result of endocrine, metabolic and immunologic changes. Some of these are trivial and chiefl y cosmeti c, producing no or minor symptoms, others can be distressing and/or of major medical importance. For the necessity of proper and complex care of the pregnant woman,the knowledge about the changes are crucial. The ability of precise diagnosis of physiological skin changes allows specifying the suspected cases of pathologic eti ology and referring them to the dermatological referral centers for in-depth diagnosis and eventual treatment. The aim of this study was to identi fy the incidence and types of dermatological changes in our populati on.Methods: Pregnant pati ents att ending the antenatal clinic of the Gynecology department in Shree Birendra Hospital, and presenti ng to the outpati ent clinic of the Department of Dermatology, Bir Hospital, for any dermatologic problem, were enrolled. The study spanned a period of 10months (January 2008 to October 2008). We evaluated 150 pregnant women to determine the patt ern of pregnancy-induced physiologic skin changes in Nepalese community.Results: Majority of pati ent developed dermatological changes in second and third trimester. The commonest sign was hyper pigmentati on of the skin followed by striae and edema. Fungal infecti ons were the commonest infecti ons observed,Tineacorporis accounti ng for 10 (6.66%) and ti neaversicolarwas seen in Eight (5.33%) pati ents. Three (2%) pati ents hadScabies. A total of 3 pati ents had sexually transmitt ed disease. 2 (1.3%) had Condyloma acuminate and 1 (.006%) had syphilis. Conclusions:Hyperpigmentati on was the commonest sign (87.33%) followed by striae (82%), edema (45.3%), vascular changes (17.3%) and melasma (8%). Varicositi es of veins, spider nevi and palmar erythema are relati vely less frequent in our populati on.

A Clinical Study about the Frequency of Physiological Skin Changes Observed in Pregnant Females

“…Abdomen & buttocks are most commonly affected areas. This is consistent with findings of other studies by Shanta Ikram 16 & Shah et al 17 Vascular changes were also found in our study. Gingival hyperemia was present in 40% of patients.…”