Erythroderma is a term applied to any inflammatory skin disease which

    affects  more  than  about  90%  of  the  body  surface. It is determined by

    erythema, scaling  and pruritus. Clinical  ,  pathological   and   laboratory

    finding   of  erythrodermic   patients  admitted  in  dermatologic  ward  of

    Sina hospital, Hamadan - Iran , between 1993-1997 (4years)were studied.

         This retrospective-cross sectional  study   was  done  by  preparation of

    the  a  checklist  of   necessary  information  getting  from  the patients file

    and then analysis the data with EPI6 software.

         Among 1107 patients were admitted in the hospital, only 48(4.3%)cases

    had erythroderma.  The  most  common  cause  of  erythroderma in these

    patients was preexisting cutaneous disease (56.3%). In this  group  eczema

    was most frequent cause of erythroderma ( 27.1% )  and  then followed by

    psoriasis (10%). Other   underlying   causes   of   erythroderma   in  order  of

    frequency   were  drugs  (25%)  lymphoma  and   leukaemias (10.4%) , and

    idiopathic(8.3%). Antiepileptic drugs  were the most frequent drug causes.

    Age of the most patients was above 40and the ratio of male to female

    was. Among  laboratory  finding eosinophilia   was reported  in more  than

    half of patients (57.7%) with eczema. The most  pathologic  diagnosis  was

    chronic dermatitis. Clinical  finding  along  with one or  more  skin   biopsis 

    were  diagnostic or   suggestive  of the underlying disease in  69.6%  of the

    cases . Relapse  was    seen   in  11 cases  of  34   followed   patients ,  that

    psoriasis was  the most frequent cause of relapse. 

         The  prevalence  and relapse  of  erythroderma  in this  study was more

    than the other studies which was done in other countries.