Surgery of Kerion, a Nightmare for Nondermatologists

Abstract

Kerion is an inflammatory type of tinea capitis characterized by swelling and alopecia of the scalp, which could be mistaken as bacterial infection. It occurs most frequently in children. We report a 10-year-old child whose kerion was misdiagnosed as bacterial abscess and unnecessarily incised. Later, her condition was rediagnosed as kerion based on clinical appearance and potassium hydroxide wet mount. The lesions resolved completely with systemic antifungal treatment, griseofulvin, leaving residual scarring alopecia. The delay in the proper diagnosis and inappropriate treatment of this patient resulted in permanent scarring alopecia. Thus, clinicians must have a high index of suspicion for tinea capitis when dealing with inflammatory scalp lesions.