Secondary Skin Lesions

Question 1

Scar

Answer 1

After a skin lesion is repaired normal tissue is lost and replaced by connective tissue (collagen). This is a permanent fibrotic change.

Examples: healed area of surgery or injury, acne.

Question 2

Atropic scar

Answer 2

Resulting skin level depressed with loss of tissue, a thinning of the epidermis.

Examples: Striae

Question 3

Lichenification

Answer 3

Prolonged intense scratching eventually thickens the skin and produces tightly packed sets of papule. Looks like surface of moss or lichen.

Question 4

Keloid

Answer 4

Hypertrophic scar. The resulting skin level is elevated by excess scar tissue which is invasive beyond site of original injury. May increase long after healing occurs. Looks smooth, rubbery, “claw-like”. Higher incidence among blacks.

Question 5

Crust

Answer 5

Thickened, dried-out exudate left when vesicles or pustules burst or dry up. Color can be red-brown, honey, or yellow, depending on the fluid’s ingredients (blood, serum, pus).

Examples: Impetigo, weeping eczematous dermatitis, scab following abrasion.

Question 6

Fissure

Answer 6

Linear crack with abrupt edges, extending into dermis, dry or moist.

Examples: cheilosis, athlete’s foot.

Question 7

Ulcer

Answer 7

Deeper depression, extending into dermis, irregularly shaped. It may bleed and leaves scar when heals.

Examples: stasis ulcers, pressure sore, chancre.

Question 8

Scale

Answer 8

Compact, desiccated flakes of skin, dry or greasy, silver or white, from shedding of dead excess keratin cells.

Question 9

Erosion

Answer 9

Scooped-out but shallow depression. Superficial lesion, epidermis is lost, and the lesion is moist but there is no bleeding. Heals w/o scar.

Question 10

Excoriation

Answer 10

Self inflicted abrasion; superficial and sometimes crusted.

Examples: Scratches from intense itching from insect bite, scabies, dermatitis, varicella.