Review paper
Epidemiological and diagnostic peculiarities of the most frequent dermatoses of pigmented skin

Most of the population of Poland and other European countries are Caucasians. Because of numerous migrations of people, Negroid inhabitants started making up a bigger and bigger group of residents of our continent. Skin diseases can afflict everybody, irrespective of race. However, a lot of common dermatoses have a different frequency and clinical appearance in black patients. Not only colour, anatomical and morphological differences are responsible for this, but also some unexplained factors. Most of the international literature, especially reputed textbooks, are replete with photographs of skin diseases in fair-skinned patients. This is one reason that skin disease in black patients can present a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. The authors of this article believe that orientation of Polish dermatologists to common diseases in pigmented skin is therefore needed. Black skinned people in a few years may be patients of our dermatological consulting rooms. In this article there are some pictures of patients who were treated in the Department of Dermatology in Munich.