The Sindh Institute of Skin Diseases ( ur, ) known as Skin Hospital or Chamra Hospital ( ur, ) is a 50-bed

dermatological Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medical ...

hospital. It is the only public sector skin hospital in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

and is located in the Regal Chowk area. This hundred-bed hospital specializes in skin diseases exclusively. It does not charge any fees for services and is governed by the Government of Sindh Province. Over 4,000 outpatients visit the hospital daily. The hospital has a minor operation theater that is used for surgical procedures like excision and

biopsies A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a dise ...

. The

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

laboratory has a facility for routine blood tests along with other special tests like fungal scraping, Tzanck smear, LD bodies, tests for syphilis,

hepatitis B Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the '' Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) that affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms during an initial infection. ...

and C virus,

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

serology—all performed free of charge. Procedures like electric

cauterization Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, o ...

, chemical cautery and

cryotherapy Cryotherapy, sometimes known as cold therapy, is the local or general use of low temperatures in medical therapy. Cryotherapy may be used to treat a variety of tissue lesions. The most prominent use of the term refers to the surgical treatment, s ...

are also performed. A facility for

light therapy Light therapy, also called phototherapy or bright light therapy is intentional daily exposure to direct sunlight or similar-intensity artificial light in order to treat medical disorders, especially seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and circad ...

is also available. The head of the hospital in 2018 was Iqbal Soomro. The site where the hospital has been located since Pakistani independence was before 1947 a centre for treatment of socially transmitted diseases. After 1947, it was converted to a centre for skin and social hygiene and treatment of lepers. The 50-bed hospital for treatment of skin diseases was established in the 1990s.

References

Hospitals in Karachi Dermatology organizations Hospitals established in the 1990s {{Pakistan-hospital-stub