Only preclinical rhinophyma severity index score linked to postoperative outcome
MONDAY, May 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For patients with rhinophyma, histopathologic features are not associated with different clinical expression, according to a study published online May 6 in the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology.
Monica Schüürmann, M.D., from the University Hospital of Leipzig in Germany, and colleagues studied 24 patients who had been treated with wide shave excisions for rhinophyma. The authors observed stained specimens for any correlation between clinical severity and histopathologic features and predictive markers of clinical recurrence.
The researchers observed no significant between-group histopathologic differences reflecting distinct clinical expressions. Clinically severe forms did not exhibit exclusive fibrotic changes from a histopathologic perspective. Furthermore, no histopathologic marker was identified that predicted the clinical disease course or possible recurrence after surgical treatment. The recently developed clinical preoperative Rhinophyma Severity Index (RHISI) score was associated with postoperative outcome, with a high preoperative RHISI score linked to the risk of recurrence.
“Histopathologic features do not correlate with the clinical expression of rhinophyma,” the authors write. “An exclusively ‘fibrotic’ rhinophyma form does not appear to exist and could possibly be the result of sampling error based on small biopsies studied.”
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