Rashes

Cleavon Gilman is back with maculopapular rashes.

A wide range of benign and dangerous pathology can present with a rash. It is wise to develop a systematic approach to rashes in the ED, one that helps you recognize the deadly causes of rash while narrowing the differential diagnosis. Any patient with a fever plus a rash could potentially have one of many deadly diseases. In order to narrow it down further, we are going to use a morphology-based approach.

“Rash” seems to be a ubiquitous complaint some days in the Ped ED. Knowing that the skin is the largest organ, it seems only appropriate that we should take these complaints seriously. Unfortunately, often I feel a little inadequate when trying to decipher the code of the Pediatric Rash.