1957/08/01 by HOWARD S. YAFFEE, Howard S. Yaffee · 39 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Medicine · #Anatomy #Dermatological diseases and infestations #Dermatology #Dermis #Entomological Studies and Ecology #Epidermis (zoology) #Heel #Hyperkeratosis #Lesion #Medicine #Pathology #Thickening
paper · doi:10.1001/archderm.1957.01550200098027
published in Archives of Dermatology 76(2), 254 (American Medical Association)
openalex publication_date 1957/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
A recent publication by Dr. Arthur Pratt<sup>1</sup>reported an instance of hyperkeratosis of the heel caused by an imbedded hair. This woman patient, suffering from a neuropathy, may have had her lesion as long as seven years. The presumption was that the patient had contacted the cut hairs of her husband's beard while dragging her paralyzed leg across the floor. Joseph and Gifford<sup>2</sup>reported interdigital pilonidal sinuses, attributed to imbedded hair, occurring in 15 barbers in the San Francisco area. In pathologic studies they showed the earliest change to be imbedding of hair in the epidermis with reactive thickening of this tissue around it. The severest changes revealed the hair lying free in the dermis, causing a foreign-body type of reaction. In the latter they noted epithelialized tracts forming around the hair, which with resultant secondary infection became inflamed and converted into branching sinuses. The