This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ronald C. Hansen, MD; Arun K. Pramanik, MD
Tucson, Ariz

Arch Dermatol. 1980;116(11):1226-1227.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.—

We share Dr Rasmussen's concern that other scabicides may be less effective than gamma benzene hexachloride (lindane) and again acknowledge that further work is needed to ensure the safety of all of the available scabicides.

However, we object to his minimization of our report by suggesting that only similarly malnourished infants would be prone to gamma benzene hexachloride toxic reactions. Although decreased subcutaneous fat tissue might cause preferential redistribution of the highly lipid-soluble gamma benzene hexachloride into a marasmic infant's brain, the unique infantile features of notably increased surface area for absorption (compared with body mass), plus the notably greater contribution of brain tissue to the total body lipid content, apply to normal as well as marasmic infants. Malnutrition and prematurity merely accentuate these attributes.

Dr Rasmussen's anecdote of 23 million treated patients is similarly unconvincing, relative to the question of safety in infancy. How many infants younger . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?