Dermatosi del piede. Patologia infettiva

The skin of the foot presents peculiar histological and anatomo- functional characteristics which make it particularly susceptible to some kinds of dermatoses, while others present, at that level, particular clinical aspects. Infective pathology has been subdivided following its aetiology, into four sections: infective vital, mycotic, bacterial and parasitic pathologies. Among the various forms, some belong almost exclusively to this area. They appear more easily in a humid-hot environment which favours maceration (infections caused by Gram+ and Gram- bacteria, candidiosis, onychomycosis, etc.) and microtraumas which act as an 'entrance gate' for various kinds of microorganism (deep mycoses, parasitosis, etc.) and the possibility of being exposed to contagious sources of infection like swimming pools (warts, atypical mycobacterioses, etc.). Other forms can however appear on the foot only occasionally or when there exist more extended areas of dermatoses. They however present such typical clinical features that they can be very easily diagnosed (hand-foot-mouth disease, tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy, etc.). Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish between infective pathologies commonly present in our part of the world and infective pathologies that can be found almost exclusively in people coming from tropical countries, in travellers or in people suffering from immunodepression. In this chapter, it has been mainly dealt in depth with the infective pathologies that are the most common in our country without however ignoring the rarest ones, for which we different diagnoses from other kinds of dermatoses and proposed possible therapeutic solutions are suggested.