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Milia en plaque is an unusual eruption typically occurring in the retroauricular area. Two cases of this disorder occurring in a novel position and treated with oral minocycline are now reported.

We describe a patient with an acute ulcerated pre-septal cellulitis with subsequent spread across the face, in whom conjunctival swabs demonstrated the presence of Moraxella species. Unusually, this organism was resistant to penicillin. Clinical improvement was only achieved when treatment with co-amoxiclav was commenced on the basis of the antibiotic sensitivities demonstrated by culture of this organism. Moraxella species are rare skin pathogens but may be underestimated as they usually respond to a wide range of antibiotics; they should be considered as a cause of facial cellulitis or erysipelas which responds poorly to conventional therapy.

A case of acute promyelocytic leukaemia is reported in which Sweet's syndrome developed at the time of an improvement in white blood cell count due to transretinoic acid. Acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis (Sweet's syndrome) is a disorder characterized by acute onset of inflammatory skin nodules associated with systemic features which include malaise, fever and neutrophilia. Many triggers and associated disorders have been identified since the syndrome was described, the most important being the association with haematological diseases including leukaemias and other myeloproliferative disorders. We describe a case apparently provoked by drug therapy.

Focal dermal hypoplasia (Goltz) syndrome was diagnosed in a 26-year-old female subject and her 5-year-old daughter. The mother had been treated surgically for syndactyly in early childhood, and at the age of 12 years had developed a large osteochondroma of the proximal humerus. This is a further bone tumour which should be added to the skeletal manifestations of this syndrome.

A patient with unilateral naevoid basal-cell-carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS, Gorlin's syndrome) provided a unique opportunity to compare the radiation sensitivity of fibroblasts from the affected and unaffected sides of the same individual. Although the growth rate of the fibroblast strain established from the affected side was faster than that from the unaffected side there was no difference in X-ray, UV-B or UV-C radiation sensitivity between fibroblasts from the two sides. These results are discussed in the context of previous studies of radiation sensitivity in NBCCS.

We report details of two patients who had digitate keratoses as a transient phenomenon following inflammatory skin disorders. In one patient, keratoses arose from the epidermal surface, from invaginated pits in the epidermis, and from follicles. Apart from the short duration of the lesions, the clinical and histological features were similar to previously reported cases of digitate keratoses.

Naevoid hypertrichosis is an unusual congenital disorder consisting of a solitary circumscribed area of terminal hair growth which is not associated with any other systemic abnormalities. We describe a patient with multiple areas of circumscribed naevoid hypertrichosis on the trunk and limbs who also had lipodystrophy at some affected sites.