White piedra—a case report and review of the literature

1365-2230

Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005

Medicine

White piedra (trichosporosis) is an unusual fungal infection of hair characterised by the presence of numerous, discrete, soft, asymptomatic nodules attached to the infected hair shafts. It may occur on the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, beard, axilla, or in the groin (Smith, Murtishaw & McBride, 1973; Taplin & Rebell, 1979a), although most infections occur on the face or scalp (Smith et al., 1973). Caused by the yeast-like fungus Trichosporon beigelii, white piedra was first described in London (Beigel, 1865), and has since been reported in Europe, North and South America, and Asia (Scott, 1951; Benson, Lapins & Odom, 1983). Successful treatment of white piedra has been achieved with simple hair clipping and with the use of various topical medications. To our knowledge, there have been no reports of successful treatment with the use of topically applied imidazole preparations. We report a case of white piedra confined to the scrotum that responded to topical clotrimazole lotion.

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