Favre-Rokusho disease (nodular skin elastosis with cysts and comedones): causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment

The disease of Favre-Rokusho

Synonym: knotty skin elastosis with cysts and gums

The disease was first described by the French dermatologist M. Favra in 1937.

The causes and pathogenesis of the disease are unknown. According to many scientists, dermatosis is hereditary. It is caused by prolonged solar insolation and other factors.

The disease is more common among people working on the sun.

Symptoms of Favre-Rokusho's disease (nodular elastosis of the skin with cysts and gums). Dermatosis is most often observed in men over 50 years. The pathological process is located on the face (mainly around the eyes and the temporal part), behind the neck and the auricle. The surface of the skin thickens, hardens, becomes rough, covered with wrinkles, can be yellowish-red in color. On the surface of the skin the size of a cherry or cherry with a diameter of 1-5 mm pours a rash of whitish-yellow, translucent color, in the central part there are several nodular and knotty elements. In the central part of many nodules and cysts there are dark brown gums. If the comedones are probed from the inside, the white mass becomes cream-like. Dystrophic changes are mainly caused on the face and neck skin. The pathological focus described above can sometimes be observed in areas that were not affected by the sun's rays.

A 42-year-old woman and her 22-year-old son were examined at the Research Institute of Dermatology and Venereology. Their pathological process was widespread, located on the neck and behind the earlobe, the body and limbs. Thus, clinical observation confirms that this is a hereditary disease.

Histopathology. In the dermis you can find cysts of different sizes. The walls of the cysts consist of several layers of dermal cells. Basophilic degeneration of the connective tissue on the upper part of the dermis, atrophy of the sebaceous glands, reduction of the sweat glands and their quantitative decrease are observed. The walls of the blood vessels thicken. Around them is determined an infiltrate, consisting of histiocytes and lymphocytes.

Differential diagnosis. The disease should be distinguished from the diffuse Duobreille elastomus, colloid-milium, acne-keloid, syringoma, trichoepithelioma.

Treatment of Favre-Rokusho's disease (nodular elastosis of the skin with cysts and gums) is symptomatic. Dermatoses are carried out. In severe cases, steroids and retinoids are recommended as a common remedy.