10. Pathology of Skin and Adnexa

The skin, a large and complex organ, is exposed to more damaging agents than any other tissue. It therefore exhibits a very wide range of inflammatory disease patterns and reactions to infectious agents, as well as a large number of tumors. The breadth of dermatopathology is consequently immense, and a knowledge of dermatopathology in correlation to the clinical details of dermatology is a necessary prerequisite for definite diagnosis. This chapter provides a simple outline of the important patterns of inflammatory and infectious dermatoses and describes some important and common tumors that occur in the skin.