This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Kenya H. Anders, MD; J. Graham Smith, Jr, MD
Medicial College of Georgia Augusta

JAMA. 1989;261(24):3547.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

We appreciate the continuing efforts of professionals such as Mss Herman-Giddens and Berson¹ in the nationwide effort to identify and intervene in child abuse cases. Their article on three cases of child molestation under the guise of genital care of children is a sobering reminder of the intricacies of the problem.

The photograph and clinical description of the genital lesions in case 3 of the article, however, are striking because of their resemblance to the dermatologic condition lichen sclerosus et atrophicus. This condition is characterized frequently in females by ivory papules coalescing to plaques in a "keyhole" distribution around the vagina and rectum. It can be associated with severe pruritus, irritation, and even bleeding and may require various forms of topical therapy for control of symptoms. The etiology is unknown, but lichen sclerosus et atrophicus occurs more frequently in females, often involving only the genitalia. It . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?