ABSTRACT
Patients affected by atopic dermatitis (AD) tend to develop common viral infections such as herpes simplex, molluscum contagiosum or verruca vulgaris more frequently than non-atopics. These infections do not exhibit other clinical features in atopics than in nonatopics, are treated similarly in both patient groups, and will not be discussed in this chapter. In addition, widespread disseminated viral infections occur in the skin lesions of AD. These infections have been described according to the causative virus as eczema molluscatum (EM), eczema vaccinatum (EV) or eczema herpeticum (EH). Though all these diseases are relatively rare and little is known about their specific pathogenesis, some of them are among the true medical emergencies in dermatology. EV and EH represent the probably most feared complications of AD. Here, we touch EM, which is more annoying than dangerous, but difficult to treat, briefly cover the most severe but nowadays only exceptionally occurring EV, and handle in depth the clinically most important aspects of diagnosis and treatment of EH.
