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To the Editor.—
The interesting report by Jackson et al (Arch Dermatol 111:1146, 1975) on inherited hairy palms and soles prompts me to describe a patient who had a carbuncle on his left palm as part of a widespread follicular pyoderma. As the photograph shows, his little finger is missing, but all thoughts of a further genetic disorder were soon dispelled by the history. As a child, he had injured his right hand severely, losing the little finger and a substantial area of palmar skin. A plastic surgeon took full-thickness skin from the lower part of the abdomen and grafted the palmar defect. In adult life, with the development of body hair, the graft also became hairy but functioned well until the infection developed. This responded to drainage and systemic antibiotic therapy.