Anogenital involvement: clinical sign of severity in hidradenitis suppurativa: Anogenital involvement in hidradenitis suppurativa.

Abstract Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, inflammatory, recurrent, debilitating skin disease of the hair follicle characterized by painful, deep-seated, inflamed lesions in the apocrine gland-bearing regions. We designed a retrospective, multicentric study to determine the characteristics and prevalence of HS male and female patients with current or previous anogenital involvement, including anus and genital tract. In total, 501 medical charts of HS patients were reviewed. Regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship among several clinical characteristics and genital involvement. Regression analysis showed that positive anamnesis for anogenital involvement was related with a higher disease severity, pain Visual Analog Scale, and Dermatology Life Quality Index. In male subgroup anogenital involvement was also associated with higher mean age, age of onset, disease duration and presence of comorbidities. We believe that genital involvement may be an indicator of a more aggressive HS course and could represent a useful clinical sign to identify patients who need earlier and more intensive therapies