Red Skin Syndrome Following Anti-Aging Procedures

Prolonged persistent erythema (reddening of the skin) after procedures such as phenol peels or carbon dioxide laser treatments for aging occur frequently but the reasons offered are usually incorrect.

It has been assumed that these patients either had a faulty procedure performed, inadequate care by the practitioner, preoperative medications such a Retin A, postoperative medications such as antibiotics causing allergy, sun exposure causing prolonged erythema or any one of an additional array of unfathomable bizarre explanations. None of these theories are supported by good scientific evidence.

It takes a great deal of elevation of thought to produce a very little elevation of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In my experience this persistent erythema and severe burning is due solely to the prolonged use of topical corticosteroids applied to the face in a futile misguided attempt to calm the “inflammation” down, prevent scarring, and stop the “post event erythema.”

It is simply not understood by the physician that the redness is due entirely to the topical corticosteroids being prescribed. Cure occurred in every patient I treated after many months of complete cessation of topical medications.

By Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD|2021-10-19T03:16:50-07:00August 28th, 2015|Red Skin Syndrome Causes, RSS The Disease|Comments Off

About the Author: Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD

In 1978 I initiated and set up the contact and photo dermatitis clinic at UCLA. There was a need to evaluate a large group of patients who exhibited severe eczematoid rashes, especially on the face. Patients were referred from all over Southern California. All patients underwent a lengthy history and examination. Further evaluations included blood studies, allergy patch testing, special sunlight (photo) testing and skin biopsies. From the start it was apparent that most patients experienced a mild dermatitis on various parts of the body that progressively worsened. Their histories always included numerous doctor visits, multiple physicians, and therapy consisting of an increasing amount of corticosteroids. My testing failed to reveal any specific culprit chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes, workplace or recreational exposures. It became increasingly clear that the physician’s therapy, the corticosteroids, was invariably causing the problem. I wrote 7 scientific articles that were published in the most august peer-reviewed dermatologic journals and I gave many lectures at various dermatology meetings. To this day an unfortunate reluctance exists on the part of most physicians to accept this simple concept.