Ilya Petrou, M.D.

Hidradenitis suppurativa has come to be associated with systemic inflammation as well as a growing list of comorbidities including acne conglobate.

Combination therapies that integrate older therapies have shown great promise in the treatment and management of keloids.

Smartphones may provide another tool for physicians to assess acne severity in patients with darker skin types, a study shows.

A study in twins highlights exacerbating factors for patients with rosacea and the importance of the microbiome.

Vince Bertucci, M.D., offers tips for building trust, addressing concerns during a cosmetic patient consultation.

The latest melanoma staging system from the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and a tool developed for predicting the clinical outcome of individual patients with localized or regional cutaneous melanoma (www.melanomaprognosis.org) have stirred debate among dermatopathologists.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a neuroendocrine tumor of the skin that is very aggressive and potentially lethal. As such, treatment approaches and disease management should also be aggressive and appropriately address the patient's disease and symptoms. Treatment choices depend on the stage of the tumor, however, as well as the general health of the affected patient.

A tangential biopsy performed on melanonychia may often be the superior biopsy technique in exacting an accurate diagnosis of suspect lesions, according to Nilton Di Chiacchio, M.D., department of dermatology, Hospital of Public Service, Sao Paulo.

A new laser approach is proving highly effective in the treatment of onychomycosis, offering patients a new therapeutic option for this sometimes difficult-to-treat condition, said Jill S. Waibel, M.D., at the 2012 meeting of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery.

With regard to the surgical treatment of androgenetic alopecia, strip harvesting and follicular unit extraction (FUE) techniques can work very well, but each technique must be used appropriately and for the appropriate patients to ensure optimal outcomes, says Walter Unger, M.D.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for management of localized primary melanoma continues to have its critics, but Alistair Cochran, M.D., says that current data supports the procedure as a standard approach for staging patients with clinically localized, intermediate-thickness melanoma.

The results of the first Multicenter Selective Lymphadenectomy Trial (MSLT-1) seem to indicate that survival in patients with intermediate thickness melanoma and metastatic disease in the regional nodes can be improved if early lymph node dissection is performed when a positive sentinel node is identified.

A facial rejuvenation device that delivers fractional bipolar radiofrequency (RF) energy via microneedling directly into the dermis tightens skin and achieves measurable lifting and volume increase the likes of which have never been seen by any other devices on the market, said Lori Brightman, M.D., at the 2012 meeting of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery.

Leg hairs can be a convenient and natural-looking donor source for hair transplantation when restoring a thinning hairline. This approach offers an aesthetic solution for select patients with male pattern baldness, according to one hair transplant specialist.

Interferon and the recently Food and Drug Administration-approved pegylated interferon remain relevant adjuvant therapies for patients with lymph node-positive melanoma, even in light of advances with CTLA4 blockade and BRAF-targeted therapies for late-stage disease, says Vernon K. Sondak, M.D., chairman, department of cutaneous oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Fla.

Differentiating benign nail pigmentations such as melanonychia from either nail or nail matrix melanoma is especially difficult in children because pediatric lesions present differently than they do in adults, according to Antonella Tosti, M.D., professor of the department of dermatology and cutaneous surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

A novel genetic testing technique allows for patients who experience hair loss of any severity to know whether their condition is likely due to androgenetic alopecia.

Flagellate pigmentation is an uncommon and curious cutaneous manifestation commonly associated with systemic bleomycin chemotherapy.

An Er:YAG laser equipped with tiny, straight and curved micron tips allows physicians to perform ablative treatments of very small and typically hard-to-reach cutaneous lesions more quickly and easily compared to traditional straight tips.

In humans, rare animal-type melanoma variant seems to be more bark than bite.

A recent clinical trial found that the dietary supplementation of oral zinc sulfate is ineffective in treating patients suffering from moderate-to-severe rosacea. The apparent failure of this particular clinical trial is of particular interest in that it was a near-duplicate of a 3-year-old clinical trial found in the literature, which showed that oral zinc supplementation was beneficial in the treatment of rosacea.

A more precise skin typing system using diffuse reflectance spectrometry is beneficial to those with intermediate skin types.

A novel approach that involves using a special formulation of calcitriol proves to impart protection against chemotherapy-induced alopecia.

According to new data, oral alitretinoin can clear severe chronic hand eczema.

Recurrent genital herpes infections can be challenging to treat, and patients' quality of life decreases as frequency of relapses increases.

Cutaneous manifestations of metabolic syndrome aid dermatologists in appropriate diagnosis.

Folliculotropic melanoma demands timely action, as little is known about the disease's potential aggressiveness.

A recent study showed that individuals with darker skin appear to have greater chronic subclinical inflammation in the stratum corneum, compared to those with lighter skin.

A recent trial with etanercept proved largely ineffective in the treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa.

Psoriasis and metabolic syndrome seem to be increasingly related disease entities.