[Acute pityriasis rubra pilaris in the child. Apropos of 4 cases].

Four cases of Pityriasis Rubra Pilaris of an acute type have been studied in three to six year old children. In three cases the disease occurred after an infection; in one out of these three cases this infection was serologically confirmed as being german measles. In the beginning, only the face is affected or the face and other part of the body. The rash looks like scarlet fever and the folicular papules appear only during the second stage. The dermatosis usually spreads within a month (from twenty days to two months) and covers the whole body without becoming erythrodermic. Then clinical picture is typical of Pityriasis Rubra Pilaris. There are no associated symptoms and no hypo-vitaminemia A is evidenced. The evolution is self limited with a spontaneous regression within three months, and there is no recurrence. These cases are similar to the classical juvenile Pityriasis Rubra Pilaris type III of Griffiths, but they keep their own particularities as far as acute evolution and good prognosis are concerned.