Aplasia cutis congenita
posted on 11/06/2009
Tucker had his appointment at Duke Dermatology this week for the doctors there to look at the abrasion on the back of his head.
Basically, when he was born, he had a wound on the back of his head about the size of a dime. It looked just like a wound that would have been caused by nodes put on his head to monitor him during delivery, except those nodes were never put on.
It scabbed over, and the scab came off, but then it again took on the look of a wound: red and peeling around the edges.
When it had not gone away by the time he was a month old, Tucker's pediatrician wanted to be sure that it was nothing wrong, so he referred us to Duke.
The dermatology team there looked at the spot and diagnosed it as "Aplasia cutis congenita." Wikipedia defines this as "a congenital focal absence of epidermis with or without evidence of other layers of the skin."
The Dermatology Online Journal defines this as "a rare anomaly presenting with absence of skin. The most common site is the scalp. No definite etiology is available. Heredity is proposed with not much evidence."
That whole heredity part at the end is kind of crazy to us, because Dan's younger sister Mackenzie has a spot that looks just like Tucker's in exactly the same spot on her scalp. Wild, huh? Sounds like evidence for heredity to me.
Anyway, everything is fine. He's just weird like his Aunt Kenzie. I hope he gets her sense of humor and good looks, too.
