Skin flora maps: a tool in the study of cutaneous ecology.

We sampled 162 and 175 skin sites, respectively, of a patient with severe atopic dermatitis and of a healthy subject, and constructed maps of the two individuals depicting the density and distribution of aerobic cutaneous flora over the entire body. All isolates of Micrococcaceae were biotyped. Neither the density nor the kinds of microorganisms were homogeneously arrayed. Instead, the separate types of flora were skewed in distribution, tended to segregate on large anatomical regions, and inhabited overlapping territories. No two sites were exactly alike in their carriage of microorganisms. Many of the apparently normal skin sites of the eczema patient carried high numbers of Staphylococcus aureus, which often was the dominant organism. Skin flora maps are seen as a potentially useful tool, especially in studying the dynamics of cutaneous microbial populations.