Case 210Rhinophyma

Case Details

Rhinophyma Case 210

Rhinophyma is a skin condition affecting mostly the bottom of the nose. It can spread outwards on to the cheeks but this is not common. The skin glands are stimulated to enlarge to sometimes enormous size, filling themselves with sebum or the oil which the skin lubricates itself. The underlying famework of the nose is unchanged. Surgery is the only solution once it has reached this stage. The thickened skin is shaved down to just above the nasal framework. This leaves a raw open wound which then must heal itself by regrowing new skin from the residual pockets remainingthroughout the surgical field. The judgement needed here is to know how much the skin can be thinned down to restore the person’s nose to its original shape, while not over doing it and leaving too little amount of skin behind. When this occurs, scar forms. This isn’t usually an issue as the resulting improvement is so much better that minor scarring doesn’t detract from the overall appearance.