Rhinophyma is a disfiguring soft-tissue hypertrophy of the nose that affects Caucasian men in the fifth to seventh decades of life. The male to female ratio ranges from 5:1 to 30:1. There are conflicting reports about the association between alcohol and rhinophyma in literature but it does not seem to be backed up by clear evidence. The only confirmed etiological association is with rosacea. Simultaneous carcinoma and rhinophyma is present in 15–30 percent of the patients. Clinically the nasal skin is irregular, erythematous with tumorous and nodular forms resulting in cosmetic deformity. The nasal skin thickens because of dermal and sebaceous gland hyperplasia.

A wide range of surgical approaches to rhinophyma has been described in literature. They involve shaving off the hypertrophied tissue with different techniques such as shaving with scalpel, cryosurgery, liquid nitrogen spray, electrocautery, dermabrasion, carbon dioxide and laser excision. The techniques can be done with or without immediate resurfacing.

The objective is to present a severe case of rhinophyma in a 52 year old male patient without significant morbid records, sporadic alcohol consumption and a progressive growth of the size of the nose in a period of 10 years, besides to describe the medical treatment and the surgical technique used for the removal of the rhinophyma and finally describe the esthetic and functional results after 2 years.

Conflict of interest: None declared.