[Vulvo-vaginitis in pediatric age].

In pediatric gynecology, inflammatory vulvo-vaginitis are very common. Their diagnosis cannot be based either on the symptoms (itching or pain) or on the signs (leucoxanthorrhea) for these classifications are "non-specific". At the Consulting Room of pediatric gynecology of the Vittore Buzzi Hospital, 215 "non-specific" vulvo-vaginitis cases have been analyzed through bacteriological and microscopical examinations of vaginal secretions. The vaginal tampon resulted negative in 53% of the cases and positive in the remaining 47%. Comparing these results with microscopical examinations we obtain: 81.8% of sensibility, 77.4% of specificity, 87.8% of negative predictive value and 62.2% of positive predictive value. In particular, this last figure is influenced by the high number of false positives of the vaginal tampons, due to the growth "in vitro" of opportunist germs momentarily quiescent "in vivo". Thus it is useful to associated the microscopical examination (that will indicate all the cases in need of treatment) and the bacteriological examination (that will indicate the right cure).