Rosacea

Rosacea is an inflammatory skin condition that causes redness of the face. It begins as flushing and redness on the central face and across the cheeks, nose, or forehead but can also less commonly affect the neck, chest, scalp or ears. The progresses of rosacea can lead to several other symptoms such as permanent redness, red bumps, red gritty eyes, burning and stinging sensations, small blood vessels visible near the surface of the skin, and in some advanced cases a bulbous nose. Rosacea tends to be progressive i.e. it gets worse over time. In most people rosacea is cyclic, which means it may flare up for a period of weeks to months and then signs and symptoms lessen for a while before it flares up again.  Although it's more common in women, men may develop more apparent signs of the disorder. It's not life-threatening, but it can affect your appearance and self-esteem.

Signs and Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of rosacea include:

• Presence of  red marks on the face,
• Small, red bumps or pustules on your nose, cheeks, forehead and chin,
• Red, bulbous nose,
• Visible small blood vessels on your nose and cheeks,
• Burning or gritty sensation in your eyes,
• Tendency to flush or blush easily.

Causes
The exact cause of rosacea is yet to be known, but researchers believe it's likely due to some combination of hereditary and environmental factors. A lot number of theories exist as to what causes rosacea. One theory is that primarily a blood vessel disorder causes vessels in the face to swell. Other is that the cause of rosacea is a chronic bacterial infection in the gastrointestinal system caused by a Helicobacter pylori infection. Some researchers have indicated that the tiny mites living in human hair follicles may play a role by clogging up sebaceous gland openings. Flare-ups often start when certain triggers cause the blood vessels in the face to dilate, which causes redness. Common triggers are sun, exercise, hot weather, emotional stress, spicy foods, alcohol, and hot baths. Swings in temperature from hot to cold or cold to hot can also trigger a flare of rosacea. Though alcohol and poor hygiene do not cause rosacea, but drinking alcohol can lead to facial flushing and can cause symptoms to get worse. But so far none of these theories have been proved.

Treatment
The treatment of rosacea varies from patient to patient depending upon the type and the degree of severity. The important fact in all the treatments is to have a gentle skin cleansing routine with non-irritating cleansers. Protection from the sun is important in rosaceous and regular use of a sunscreen. Oral tetracycline antibiotics and topical antibiotics are initially prescribed by doctors to relieve papules, pustules, inflammation and some redness. Dermatological vascular laser and Intense Pulsed light machines offer one of the best treatments. They use light to penetrate the epidermis to target the capillaries in the dermis layer of the skin. The light is absorbed by oxy-hemoglobin which heat up causing the capillary walls to heat up to 70ºC, damaging them, causing them to be absorbed by the body's natural defense mechanism thus preventing further rosacea. CO2 lasers can be used to remove excess tissue caused by phymatous rosacea. CO2 lasers emit a wavelength that is absorbed directly by the skin. The laser beam can be focused into a thin beam and used as a scalpel or defocused and used to vaporiouse rosacea tissue.