Nikolskiy's Sign - A Review

Autoimmune skin disorders sometimes are characterized by acantholysis, or loss of the normal epithelial cell-to- cell adhesion within the skin(8). Clinically, these disorders present with blistering of the skin and include the pemphigus and pemphigoid groups of disorders. On visual inspection only, these skin conditions are difficult to diagnose and may be confused with other types of skin disorders. Nikolskiy"s sign is a well described clinical sign that can be helpful in differentiating some of the autoimmune skin disorders and even determining their prognosis(9).This article presents the original description of Nikolskiy's sign given by Piotr Vasiliyevich Nikolskiy in 1894, along with various different interpretations of Nikolskiy's sign and numerous terminologies used in the literature by a number of clinicians.