[Therapy of rhinophyma]

Abstract

Treatment of rhinophyma is successful only with surgical methods. The operative techniques described in the literature are discussed critically and decortication is the method of choice. When this technique is applied, the hyperplastic nasal tissue is removed down to the basal parts of the sebaceous glands. This causes spontaneous re-epithelization of the skin surface without scarring. Methods using deeper excision and plastic surgical repair of the defect by skin grafting or pedicled flaps are cosmetically inferior to the method of decortication. Whatever the method, however, histopathological examination of the excised rhinophyma tissue is necessary in order to exclude malignant growths, such as basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas, which are frequently seen in rhinophyma.