Abstract
An 83-year-old man presented with an approximately one-year history of an extensive inflammatory purulent crusted lesion in the bald area of the scalp diagnosed as tinea caused by Trichophyton rubrum. The scalp biopsy specimen showed suppurative folliculitis with perifollicular abscesses in upper dermis, and periodic acid-Schiff-positive fungal elements within the hair follicles and in the hyperkeratotic horny layer.
The infection probably spread from diseased fingernails. A cure of the scalp lesion was achieved two months after starting daily oral treatment with terbinafine 250 mg.
To our knowledge, the case presented is the first one in which a suppurative abscess-forming T. rubrum infection of the bald area of the scalp in an immunocompetent man has been described.