Neurogenic Rosacea Treatment: A Literature Review

Rosacea is a chronic skin disorder involving central facial erythema secondary to vascular instability and cutaneous inflammation. Rosacea is divided into different subtypes based on the morphology of the rash — erythematotelangiectatic, papulopustular, phymatous, and ocular rosacea. A less-known subtype called neurogenic rosacea has been proposed to categorize patients suffering from rosacea with erythematous flushing and burning sensation that is refractory to traditional treatment. There is minimal data on this subgroup of rosacea patients and its potential treatment options. This review aims to explore current medical literature to define characteristics of neurogenic rosacea and its management. We performed a systematic search of PubMed database and identified 6 articles meeting inclusion criteria with a total of 37 patients with suspected neurogenic rosacea. Combination treatments with topicals (eg, metronidazole, brimonidine), as well as oral medications including vascular (eg, beta blockers), psychiatric (eg, diazepam, duloxetine), neurologic (eg, pregabalin, sumatriptan), and antibiotic agents (eg, rifaximin), were often cited to have better outcomes, but this finding was highly variable between patients. There were isolated reports of effective management with onabotulinumtoxinA intradermal injections and endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy treatment. Current literature supports selecting agents aimed at treating the major symptom pattern (eg, erythema, telangiectasias, burning sensation).