Carbon baby syndrome: two case reports

Carbon baby syndrome, also known as universal acquired melanosis is one of the causes of diffuse hyperpigmentation of skin and mucosa with only a limited number of reported cases in the literature. We here report, two cases of universal acquired melanosis in two siblings of a family. They developed progressive darkening of skin and mucosa from 5 and 4 months of their lives, respectively. The colour change was insidious, asymptomatic, progressive and generalised. Histopathology showed increased pigmentation of epidermal basal layer. According to clinicohistological assessment, the cases were diagnosed as carbon baby syndrome with familial clustering.