Methods and results of rhinophyma treatment

Rhinophyma is a disfiguring soft-tissue hypertrophy of the nose. It is an uncommon disease that primarily affects Caucasian men in the fifth to seventh decades of life. Nine cases from the authors' series and a comparison of results following various treatment modalities are presented. Eight of the patients were Caucasian and one was African American. Excision of the diseased tissue with a scalpel or Goulian dermatome using loupe magnification provided the safest means of preserving the underlying sebaceous gland fundi that permit spontaneous re-epithelialization with the least scarring.