[Diffuse (presenile) hyperplasia of the sebaceous glands, a new entity? Successful treatment with 13-cis-retinoic acid].

We report the case of a young man with extreme sebaceous gland hyperplasia that occurred in a diffuse pattern of aggregated papular lesions involving the entire face, neck and upper chest, together with marked seborrhoea oleosa. Oral therapy with 13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin) resulted in remarkable improvement within a few weeks. Parallels from our case are drawn to familial sebaceous hyperplasia, reported by Dypre et al. in 1980 [6], and to a case of a young man with severe sebaceous gland hyperplasia and facial seborrhoea, reported by de Villez et al. in 1982. We suggest that these types of seboglandular proliferative disorders be classified as diffuse (presenile) sebaceous gland hyperplasia in contrast to the well-defined senile circumscribed variant, and that they be regarded as a separate entity.