Symptoms and Treatment of Acne Rosacea

Both a skin and eye disorder, acne rosacea disease is a type of acne characterized by the appearance of pustules and vascular manifestations on the affected tissues. So far, the nature and exact causes of acne rosacea is not fully explained although it is known that sun exposure will increase the risk of disease development. The face and the chest are the most affected body parts both by the flushing and the pustules outbreak, and the disease tends to get worse after spicy food, hot drinks and alcohol.

It seems that acne rosacea has been reported in more women than men, with a higher occurrence of the disease in the middle-aged group. Thus, the majority of patients are people between 30 and 60, but here we ought to add that black skin is more difficult to diagnose. Yet, there is not enough clinical evidence to support the idea that acne rosacea affects fair-skinned people most of the times.

The acne blemishes characteristic to the disease are most often distributed in the nose area, on the cheeks and chin, but the central forehead doesn’t get spared either. Although the oily appearance of the skin makes acne rosacea resemble acne vulgaris illness, differences do exist. In traditional acne forms, comedones have no limitation of extent, whereas with rosacea they don’t even appear in the flush areas. Moreover, acne rosacea has a hypertrophy dimension that is not found with acne vulgaris.

Since acne rosacea is a chronic disease its evolution usually expands over several years marked by critical episodes characterized by inflammation. Most often, topical corticosteroids are applied to reduce the intensity of the symptoms and to improve the overall condition, but they are not suitable for long-term therapy because of the risk to cause an atrophy or permanent vaso-dilation of the tissues. Most doctors will therefore choose to recommend the systemic treatment instead of the topical one.

Sometimes the damage caused by acne rosacea needs surgical treatment, but only an expert can decide on such a course of action. Electrocautery and the tunable dye laser procedure represent the two main solutions under the circumstances, but skin grafting, dermabrasion and other forms of excision are also possible. The the analysis of rosacea acne should not be ignored or postponed even if the condition shows an improvement over some periods of time.