Collodion baby: the out-come of long-term follow-up.

About 10 Thai collodion babies were treated at the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University from 1970 to 1990. Most of them were premature and small for gestational age infants. The sex incidence of males to female was 3:2. Only half of the cases had a family history of ichthyosis. The severity of thickness and tightness of the collodion membranes varied from mild to severe. The clinical and histopathologic findings revealed 5 cases of lamellar ichthyosis (50%), of which one case had episodes of pustular psoriasis. One case evolved to be ichthyosis vulgaris 10 per cent, one case had palmoplantar hyperkeratosis (10%), one case had been apparently normal up to 18 years old, one died of respiratory infection and another case was lost from follow-up. All cases of lamellar ichthyosis were associated with mental retardation with some degree of slow physical development. One severe collodion baby suffered from congenital absence of distal phalanges of toes with increased thickness of the finger nails.