Pediatric Tinea Capitis: A Retrospective Cohort Study from 2010 to 2021

Joel Dascalu, Hiba Zaaroura, Yael Renert-Yuval, Ziyad Khamaysi, Emily Avitan-Hersh*, Rivka Friedland*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Pediatric tinea capitis displays a wide range of prevalence, with significant variability among populations. We retrospectively extracted the medical records of 456 pediatric patients diagnosed with tinea capitis during the years 2010–2021, from the dermatology outpatient clinics in two tertiary medical centers. Three species were isolated in 90% of patients: T. tonsurans, M. canis, and T. violaceum. While T. tonsurans presented a six-fold increase in incidence during the years 2019–2021, M. canis maintained stable incidence rates. Furthermore, terbinafine was the most efficient antifungal agent against T. tonsurans, achieving complete clinical clearance in 95% of patients, as compared to fluconazole (68%) and griseofulvin (38%) (p < 0.001). The mycological cure was recorded in 61/90 (68%) of patients with available data, at an average of 10 weeks. For patients with M. canis, griseofulvin and fluconazole were equally efficient (73% and 66%, respectively) (p = 0.44). Kerion was described in 36% and 14% of patients with T. tonsurans and M. canis, respectively, (p < 0.001). In conclusion, since 2019, there has been a significant increase in the prevalence of T. tonsurans, establishing this pathogen as the most common cause for tinea capitis in our population. Our data suggest that terbinafine is effective and presents high cure rates for tinea capitis in the pediatric population.

Original languageEnglish
Article number366
JournalJournal of Fungi
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2023

Keywords

  • Trichophyton tonsurans
  • antifungal treatment
  • kerion
  • tinea capitis

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Pediatric Tinea Capitis: A Retrospective Cohort Study from 2010 to 2021'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this