2020 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 31-34
We encountered a case of minocycline hydrochloride-induced skin pigmentation in a hemodialysis patient. The patient had been on hemodialysis for chronic renal failure due to nephrosclerosis for one year. He was diagnosed with pyogenic spondylitis 7 months before his admission and was started on 200 mg/day oral minocycline. Two months before admission, black spots appeared on his extremities, which were considered to be due to subcutaneous bleeding. Thereafter, he was admitted to our hospital because of difficulty piercing the shunt vessel. Large areas of his limbs were covered with black spots with unclear boundaries. As he was receiving long-term oral minocycline hydrochloride treatment, the cause of the spots was suspected to be drug-induced cutaneous pigmentation. He was subsequently pathologically diagnosed with drug-induced skin pigmentation. Hemodialysis patients often develop subcutaneous hemorrhages due to platelet dysfunction, the effects of drugs, or frequent vascular puncture procedures. Therefore, when skin pigmentation is observed in a dialysis patient it is necessary to distinguish it from subcutaneous hemorrhaging.