Epidermal maturation arrest.

Cutaneous wound repair involves a complex and temporal integration of cytokines, formed blood components, extracellular matrix, and parenchymal cells. The normal healing process can be impeded at any step along its path by a variety of factors. We present four cases of abnormal wound repair in patients whose defects were left to heal by second intention following Mohs micrographic surgery. In particular, these patients experienced an unusual delay in healing with an apparent arrest of epidermal maturation. Each appeared to respond to a topical steroid and/or ibuprofen. The intent of this therapy was to inhibit products of the arachadonic acid cascade or other cytokines that may have been hindering normal epidermal differentiation. We present four case reports, a brief review of epidermal reconstitution in wounds, and a possible explanation for why our therapy may have hastened wound repair in our patients.