SummaryThe pattern of skin diseases represents an index for community development and quality of provided health care, and it is important to build community-directed health care strategies. This study aimed to describe the current pattern of skin diseases and to assess the change in the pattern of dermatological diseases for patients attending Assiut University Hospital by comparing the study findings with the results of a similar previous study conducted in the period 1969-1973. The study was a retrospective hospital-based study. Medical records of the patients presented with any skin disorders were reviewed and the diagnosis was classified according to International Classification of Diseases ICD (10th version 2010). Results. A total of 57,884 patients were registered during the period 2008-2012 compared to 50,000 patients in the period 1969-1973. Our study demonstrated that the rate of the infectious skin diseases represents a respectable portion (37.9%) but, in the previous study it was 50.8% (p<0.001). However, viral infections were increasing from 4.5 to 18.7%. Generally, non-infectious skin diseases showed higher percentages in the present study than the previous study (62 vs 49.2%). The rate of dermatitis was increasing from 15.6% in the year 1976 to 24.5% in year 2012 particularly contact dermatitis. Conclusion. There is a trend of increasing non-infectious skin diseases particularly contact dermatitis. On the other hand infectious skin diseases still occupied major portion particularly viral infections. Further studies on the trend of skin diseases in the community are needed.KEY WORDS: trend; skin diseases pattern.