Impetigo Contagiosa: Suppurative and Non-Suppurative Complications

OUR PRESENT knowledge of impetigo contagiosa extends from descriptions now over 100 years old.¹,²The defining of "streptococcal" and "staphylococcal" forms of impetigo has been principally the work of dermatologists,³⁻⁵while others, including bacteriologists and epidemiologists, have described the characteristics of infecting organisms.⁶⁻¹⁰Fewer examples of studies of impetigo are found in the pediatric literature and the above mentioned studies may not be widely appreciated by physicians caring for children. Interest in streptococcal impetigo or pyoderma as an important predisposing infection of acute glomerulonephritis has appeared to be greater among physicians and investigators in the southern and southeastern section of the US reflecting perhaps a higher incidence of impetigo in warmer climates, and its relatively more important role in nephritis.¹¹⁻¹⁶The reports of pyoderma and nephritis among Indians at Red Lake, Minn, indicate however that skin infection is by no means limited to the south.¹⁷,¹⁸