Common Skin Lesions
What is a skin lesion?
Common skin lesions are typically defined as an abnormal change in the
structure of a part of the skin due to a specific disease or injury.
Types of skin lesions
Skin lesions can generally be divided into two categories, including
the primary and secondary skin lesions. Read on for a brief description
of each one of the types of skin lesions:
Primary skin lesions
skin lesions are basically the variations in texture or color that will
mostly be present at birth, acquired due to a disease, injury or
environmental conditions. Mostly benign lesions, skin will mostly
undergo only an external damage from these lesions.
Some of the most important types of primary skin lesions include:
Macule: Typical examples of macules include freckles and flat moles.
These are small, circular skin formations, usually brown, red or white
in color and mostly occurring as facial skin lesions.
: These are raised, pus-filled small skin lesions, occurring as the result of an infection.
Vesicle: Small fluid-filled lesions, these mostly occur due to insect
bites, sunburns, chemical irritation, herpes skin lesions and the like.
• Nodule: A solid lesion with distinct edges, it is a deep rooted hard mass of skin.
• Papule: Red, brown or pink in color, these occur in association with conditions like
, psoriasis, syphilis,
• Lupus skin lesions: Lupus skin lesions usually occur in the form of red rashes on the skin of face and hands.
Secondary skin lesions
are defined as the changes in the skin which result from primary skin
lesions, either as a natural process or as a result of scratching.
The major types of secondary skin lesions include:
Ulcer: One of the most common type of skin lesions, it involves the
loss of the parts of the upper portion as well as the lower parts of the
skin and will result from bacterial infections, trauma or chronic
conditions like scleroderma. Traumatic skin lesions are typically
• Crust: Also known as a scab, these crusty skin lesions
are a normal part of a healing process and is a dried collection of
blood, pus or serum.
• Scale: Often associated with fungal infections and
, it is a dry and horny build-up of dead skin cells that flake off the
surface of the skin. With these kinds of skin lesions, itchy and
irritable skin is a common occurrence.
• Erosion: It is a type of lesions of the skin in which there is a loss of epidermis.
In addition, there are other types, such as the neoplastic skin lesions that are usually common in the elderly population.
there is such a huge range of common skin lesions, their causes also
span a wide range of reasons, right from simple circular skin lesions to
HIV skin lesions and cancerous skin lesions.
Causes of common skin lesions:
• Inheritance and hereditary factors
• Skin infections
• Allergic reactions
• Skin sensitivities
• Diseases and disorders
you have conditions like Crohns disease, skin lesions are a common
occurrence, emanating from the impact on the digestive system and
overall health. Even for those who’ve been diagnosed with aids, skin
lesions are a usual outcome.
Treatment of skin lesions
first step taken to treat common skin lesions is to ascertain the cause
and also to rule out more serious consequences such as the lesion being
a sign of a cancer or similar disorders.
Once you know the
cause, skin lesions treatment is often more successful. For proper
treatment, it is also important to spot any possible precancerous skin
lesions. A routine skin lesion biopsy is usually done for this reason.
done, the next immediate step is to seek immediate relief from the
discomfort, irritation or pain associated with the skin lesions. These
come in the forms of:
• Topical preparations such as ointments, creams and lotions such as
, which can be used for all types of lesions.
• Topical antibiotics, fungicides, pediculicides and scabicides
Corticosteroids and other medications, used to get relief from pain,
especially if you have cancer lesions, skin and the surrounding regions
can undergo a drastic change.
• Pressure dressings
• Absorbent powders
• Cosmetic treatments
case of serious infections, a minor surgery for excision of skin lesion
might be required. This is due to the fact that a cancerous skin lesion
will usually not respond to any mild skin lesions treatment. In fact,
skin cancer lesions often serve an ideal candidate for excisions. This
is usually safe and is done under the influence of a local anesthetic.
By Jasmin Pannu
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