Thursday, 27 December 2012
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Thursday, 6 December 2012
PEDICULOSIS/ LICE INFESTATION
Lice are wingless, flattened, blood-sucking
insects that are survive as surface parasites on birds and mammals.
Pediculosis
is a term used to denote infestation by Pediculus
capitis (head louse), Pediculus
humans (body louse), or Phthirus
pubis (pubic louse). The bites of lice are painless and difficult to
detect. The clinical signs and symptoms are the result of the patient’s
reaction to the saliva and anticoagulant injected into the dermis by the louse
at the time of feeding. Depending on the degree of sensitivity and previous
exposure, the feeding sites produce reddish rash hours to days after feeding.
Itching
(Pruritus) is the most common symptom of any type of pediculosis.
Lice
cannot jump or fly. Pets are not vectors (carriers of insect). Diagnosis is
made by seeing the lice or their eggs.
Lice
feed approximately five times each day by piercing the skin with their claws,
injecting irritating saliva, and sucking blood.
Lice
are active and can travel very fast. That is why they can be transmitted so
easily. The life cycle from egg to hatching of the insect, and then laying new
egg is approximately 1 month.
NITS/LICE EGGS
The
female lays approximately six eggs, or nits, each day for up to 1 month, and
then dies. The louse incubates, hatches in 8 to 10 days, and reaches maturity
in approximately 18 days. Nits are 0.8 mm long and are firmly cemented to the
bases of hair shafts to close to the skin to acquire adequate for incubation.
Nits are very difficult to remove from the hair shaft.
Clinical manifestations
Lice
infestation of the scalp is most common in children. An average patient carries
less than 20 adult lice. A small minority of patients can have more than 100
lice in the scalp. Scratching causes inflammation and secondary bacterial
infection, with boils (pustules), crusting, and lumps in the neck (cervical lymphadenopathy).
The
eyelashes may be involved, causing redness and swelling. Examination of the
back of scalp shows few adult organisms but many nits. Nits are cemented to the
hair, whereas dandruff scale can be easily moved along the hair shaft. Head
lice can survive away from the human host for about 3 days, and nits can survive
for up to 10 days.
Transmission
The main
source of transmission is direct skin to skin contact. Other sources like hats,
brushes, combs, earphones, bedding, furniture is common. Head lice do not carry
or transmit any contagious infection.
Diagnosis
Lice
are suspected when a patient complains of itching in a localized area without
an apparent rash. The itching tends to very severe sometimes. Scalp and public
lice will be apparent to those who carefully examine individual hairs. They are
not apparent with only a cursory examination.
Finding
nits does not indicate active infestation. Nits may persist for months after
successful treatment. Live eggs reside within a quarter inch of the scalp.
COMBING
Combing
the hair with a fine-toothed “nit,” or detection, comb is effective for
detecting and removing live lice. The comb is inserted near the crown until it
touches the scalp, and then drawn firmly down. The teeth of the comb should be
0.2 to 0.3 mm apart to trap lice. The entire head of hair should be examined
for lice after each stroke. It usually takes 1 minute to find the first louse.
Lice and nits can be seen easily under a microscope and a hand lens.
Wood lamp examination
Live
nits fluoresce and can be detected easily by Wood’s light examination, a
technique that is especially useful for rapid examination of a large group of
children. Nits that contain an unborn louse fluoresce white. Nits that are
empty fluoresce gray.
MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Infestation
is most common among children 3-12 years of age and their parents.
Identification of live lice is the gold standard of diagnosis; however, finding
nits alone in a patient who has not been treated also warrants treatment. Nits are easier to spot, especially at the
nape of the neck and behind the ears. Hatched nits are white; unhatched nits
are brown. Detection combing of wet hair with a fine-toothed nit comb allows for efficient recovery of
lice and nits for diagnosis.
Examination
for nits and lice via nit combing
Nit
combing is four times more efficient than and twice as fast as direct visual
inspection.
FIRST-LINE THERAPIES
·
Malathion 0.5%
lotion
·
Permethrin 1%
cream rinse
·
Carbaryl
0.5% lotion
OTHER
THERAPIES
Ø
Topical crotamiton
10%
Ø
Nit picking
-
Bug Busting (wet combing)
Ø
Lindane 1%
Ø
Oral Ivermection
Ø
Topical lvermection
Ø
Trimethoprim /Sulfamethoxazole
Ø
Levamisole
Ø
Fomite control
Ø
Head shaving
Launderable
items (worn clothing and used bedding, towels, scarves, and hats) should be
placed in a dryer at 60°C for 10 minutes. Brushes, combs, and hair ornaments
can be placed in hot water (60°C or more) for 10 minutes. Non-launderable items (i.e, certain stuffed animals) should
be placed in a bag for 3 days (not 15 days, as eggs laid off a host will
probably not hatch close enough to a host to obtain their first blood meals).
Cloth
furniture and rugs should be vacuumed. Fumigation of the home is not required.
Contacts
of all detected cases, including classmates, should be screened. Empiric
therapy for close household contacts is also recommended. Those likely to have
had head-to head contact with the index case in the previous 4-6 weeks should
be identified and screened. Children should not be excluded from school for
head lice as the infestation often has been around for month prior to its
detection. Hair grows 1cm per month, and lice lay eggs close to the scalp where
it is moist and warm. Nits detected 2 cm from the scalp represent a 2 months old
infestation. Therapy within a week of the detected infestation is more reasonable.
Dr Arika Sethi
Dr Pradeep Sethi
http://www.directhairtransplantation.com
Labels:
hair care,
hair grooming,
lice treatment,
nits treatment
Location:
Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Hair Replacements, Hairpieces and Wigs
A
hair replacement (hair system or hairpiece) is partial synthetic or natural
hair prosthesis that covers a part of the scalp which is bald, whereas a wig
which covers the entire scalp. A wig is worn usually by women whereas the men
prefer to wear a cap because of persistence of the hair at the back and sides
of the head (occipital and temporal fringe in men with male patterned
baldness).
Hair
replacements can be attached to the scalp through a variety of mechanisms. They
are summarized below:
· Glue adhesives: provide more durable bonding and can be used to keep a replacement in place for upwards of a month.
· Hair weaving: uses existing hair to provide anchorage to the hair system through inter-weaving the two together. Weaving can also provide a month of time for a hair replacement to remain in place before maintenance is required.
· Hair clips: Hair replacement is secured with several sets of little combs that clip to a person’s hair.
These
hair replacements require maintenance like:
· Coloring
· Repairing
· Replacing
· Bonding it back on scalp
Hair styling requires special sensitivity and
technique to provide proper blending and is usually carried out in specialized
salons where men who wear hair replacements can feel more comfortable in that
environment dedicated to their needs.
The
benefits of hair replacement are that:
· They can provide immediate gratification as
opposed to a hair transplant that requires 6 months or beyond to see the result
· Look more denser that the look after a single sitting of hair transplant
· Less expensive
· It is a good option in individuals with cannot undergo hair transplant because of underlying systemic diease like cardiac problem, coagulopathies etc.
· Individual with extremely poor density in the donor areas
· Look more denser that the look after a single sitting of hair transplant
· Less expensive
· It is a good option in individuals with cannot undergo hair transplant because of underlying systemic diease like cardiac problem, coagulopathies etc.
· Individual with extremely poor density in the donor areas
The
disadvantages are:
· The maintenance requires a lot of labor and time investment. In contrast the transplanted hair don’t require much extra care
· The hair of the artificial replacement don’t undergo growth
· The wearer is under a constant fear of displacement of the hairpiece
· The wearer may develop social inhibition due the risk of being “caught”
These
hair replacements provide cover up for a patient who is has undergone hair transplant for the transition phase (i.e. the phase when the growth of
transplanted hair has not started yet). Such persons should understand two
things:
· Hair transplant cannot provide the very low hairline as that of a hair replacement
· They need to make some adjustment in the way a hair replacement is worn after the hair transplant
Nevertheless,
most people seeking hair transplant are willing to compromise hair density and
selecting the hair transplant only of the front and top of the scalp. They also
accept the exposed, bald vertex for the freedom of having their natural hair.
They must understand the limitations and advantages of hair transplantation
after proper and thorough counseling by their physician.
There are some situations in which a patient wearing
the hairpiece can consider undergoing hair transplant like:
Great
advances have been made to increase the natural look of hairpieces today. Unlike
the older hairpieces that were thick, synthetic, and poorly shaped which looked
like “hairy rug”, today’s thin, laced front hair replacements are made of
natural hair and almost undetectable.
The
reason modern hair replacements look less obvious is that the hairs are woven
through a transparent mesh base that attaches to the scalp that can simulate
natural hair emanating from the scalp. Another reason is that they contain
significantly fewer hairs (closer to the natural hair density).
Dr Arika Sethi
Dr Pradeep Sethi
http://www.directhairtransplantation.com
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