Clinical Evaluation of Dermatology Consultation in Inpatients

Background: Dermatologic problems may represent a primary cutaneous disorder or an underlying systemic disease and are common but frequently overlooked in inpatients. Objective: We described and quantified dermatologic consultations in Seoul National University Hospital over 9 years for comparison with other reports. Methods: We retrospectively studied the records of 9,529 hospitalized patients for which a dermatologist consultation was requested. Results: Consult patients numbered 9,529 among 506,927 inpatients (1.88%). The total number of male and female patients were 5,428 (56.96%) and 4,101 (43.04%), respectively (M:F=1.32:1). The most frequent age group was the 6th decade (19.05%) and the lowest age group was the 1st decade (5.14%). In 2008, most of the consultations (72.24%) were made by internal medicine, followed by neurology (6.34%), and pediatrics (4.59%). Patients with cancer were most frequently consulted for underlying disease (24.58%), followed by hematologic malignancy (22.66%), and liver disease (10.69%). The most common skin disorders were drug eruption (24.5%), followed by eczema (15.7%), and viral infection (12.6%), and with more consults for drug eruption and viral infection than previous studies. The most common reasons for consultation were: dermatologic diseases or conditions (73.8%), diseases related to treatment (16.2%), and skin lesions of systemic disease (8.8%). Conclusion: Inpatient dermatology consultations not only improve the quality of patient care but also can provide opportunities for residency education and experience with clinical dermatology.