ABSTRACT
The skin under a stoma appliance is warm, humid, and intermittently soiled, providing an ideal environment for microbial growth. Some stoma patients may also be at an increased risk of skin infection because of general ill health or immunosuppressive therapy given for malignancy or infl ammatory bowel disease. We have swabbed, for microbiological investigation, the peristomal skin of all the patients attending our clinic and have identifi ed a range infections as well as a number of bacterial and fungal organisms colonizing the area without causing skin disease. We recommend that all peristomal skin disorders are swabbed for bacterial and fungal culture as many rashes (e.g., psoriasis) can become infected and because infections under stomas can present as a range of eczema and psoriasis-like rashes. Over the last 10 years, we have seen very few viral infections affecting peristomal skin. In fact, apart from viral warts the only viral infection we have seen is shingles affecting the abdominal skin. Nonetheless, viral infections are a potential problem and are briefl y discussed here. Overall, however, we do see more infections (11% of referrals), particularly fungal. In some series, fungal infections are among the more common peristomal skin problems (1) .
