TINEA NIGRA PALMARIS
Review of Literature and Case Report
Charles F. Merwin M.Sci. (Dermatology), M.D.1
1 Dermatology Branch, Box 1727, USAF Hospital Keesler, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi
Tinea nigra palmaris is a distinctive benign superficial mycosis involving the palms of children and young adults that has not been sufficiently stressed in pediatric texts and literature. This disease is of no importance to the good health of the patient but its recognition by pediatricians and surgeons is important in that an unnecessary surgical procedure may be avoided. The United States literature is reviewed and summarized, a representative case is reported, and the details of the clinical and laboratory diagnosis outlined. An analysis of 60 reported cases reveals a striking sex preference for females over males of 3.6:1; all except 4 cases are under age 20 years; the disease is limited almost exclusively to the palms; and all of the cases have resided in coastal states. A plea is made for a high index of suspicion for this disease when dark skin lesions of the hand are seen in the young and for the more frequent use of the simple KOH microscopic examination of skin scrapings in all such lesions before excisional biopsy is carried out.
Submitted on November 10, 1964
Accepted on January 5, 1965
