Epidemiology of skin diseases in renal transplant recipients in a tertiary hospital.

INTRODUCTION

There is no published epidemiological data on skin diseases in kidney transplant recipients in this tropical country, which has multi-ethnic groups with the Chinese as the predominant ethnic group.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Skin diseases of 143 renal transplant recipients were studied in a skin clinic of a tertiary institution during annual surveillance visits from June 2006 to March 2009.

RESULTS

Our study showed that except the common drug specific skin manifestations, sebaceous hyperplasia (56.6%), seborrheic keratosis (60.8%), melanocytic naevi (76.9%), skin tags (37.1%) and viral (29.4%) and fungal (20.3%) infections were the most prevalent skin diseases among renal transplant recipients living in Singapore. The prevalence of pre-malignant and malignant tumours was very low (11.2% actinic keratosis, 1.4% Bowen's disease, 1.4% squamous cell carcinoma, 0.7% basal cell carcinoma, 0.7% keratoacanthoma). Male predominance was seen in sebaceous hyperplasia (72.4% vs 32.1%), actinic keratosis (17.2% vs 1.8%), viral (36.8% vs 19.6%) and fungal (27.6% vs 8.9%) infections. Our study also showed increased prevalence of sebaceous hyperplasia with increased age but its prevalence was significantly higher than that reported in the age matched general population. The prevalence of seborrheic keratosis, actinic keratosis and viral infection correlated positively with post-transplant duration.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study provides epidemiological data for the prevalence of skin diseases in renal transplant recipients. It emphasises the importance of dermatologic follow-up for renal transplant patients in order to obtain a diagnosis and manage treatable skin diseases.