[Fungal infections of skin and its appendages - an important problem on the border of general medicine and dermatology.]

Superficial mycoses of skin and its appendages are an important health problem of the general population. Solving this problem seems to be possible only with close cooperation between GPs and dermatologists. The article presents the state of the art in the field of skin mycoses. The current knowledge of pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of fungal infections are briefly reviewed. It stresses that the traditional model of diagnosing skin mycoses, based only on clinical signs, is now obsolete and may even lead to misdiagnosis as well as expensive and ineffective treatment. Moreover, because of the increasing importance of general practitioners in the national health system in Poland. a model of cooperation between GPs and dermatologists for effectively combatting dermatomycoses has been proposed. Patients should also be involved as an active party in this process.

KEY WORDS: skin mycoses, dermatophytes, yeasts, non-dermatophyte moulds, diagnosis, treatment, cooperation GP - dermatologist.