Rhinophyma is a disfiguring soft-tissue hypertrophy of the nose. It is an u
ncommon disease that primarily affects Caucasian men in the fifth to sevent
h 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 disea
sed tissue with a scalpel or Goulian dermatome using loupe magnification pr
ovided the safest means of preserving the underlying sebaceous gland fundi
that permit spontaneous re-epithelialization with the least scarring.