What is Ichthyosis?
Ichthyosis is an inherited skin disorder which may run in families, in which the skin is rough and looks like fish scales. It may be obvious at birth or become apparent a few weeks later. In mild cases it involves just a very dry skin; in severe cases the skin is a mass of loose scales which fall off when dressing and can be shaken off clothing.
The Ichthyoses are a family of skin diseases; the characteristic that they each share is that they cause the skin to build up and scale (some medical journals and dictionaries still refer to ichthyosis as “fish skin disease). The degree of scaling can vary; some people who have ichthyosis just have dry skin. They can pretty easily care for their skin with drugstore lotions, and unless they told you they had trouble with dry skin, you probably would never know that had it. As you might guess, this type of ichthyosis is fairly common. However, most forms of ichthyosis are much more severe (also very rare). The scaling can be very heavyyou definitely notice right away, just passing someone on the street, that something is wrong with their skin. However, its much more than a cosmetic problem for the person who has ichthyosisthe scaling can be very painful, as it can restrict the bodys range of movement, pull so tightly around the face that the eyelids turn outward, cause deep cracks or fis
