Recurring small patch

Hi Dr.

For the past year or so, i have had a recurring small red patch of skin on the left side of my face, under my eye and next to the nose. When it first comes up, it looks like a couple of small pimples. It seems to come up in the same place and gets a bit redder and lingers for a couple of weeks, then fades away and dries out. It is only on one side and doesn't seem to flake much. I thought it was like eczema or seborrhea but it doesn't have the flakiness described in seborrhea. I am just concerned that it keeps cropping back up every month or so. I feels like it comes up when i get stressed but i never had this problem before. I do have acne though. It doesn't itch at all either which is why i thought it wasn't eczema. I figured it wasn't acne as it comes in the same place.

Thanks a bunch
Rob.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Hard to say.  It sounds a little like eczema or seborrhea.  If you're treating it with a steroid cream, it may possibly be steroid rosacea, which responds to stopping the steroid and using an antibiotic cream like metronidazole, but that's just a guess.  It doesn't sound at all serious or allergic, but I think you're going to need to see a doctor in person to find out exactly what it is.  Since it's intermittent, you should try to take a good photo of what it's like at its worst.  And of course--don't pick or rub at it, since that would confuse the issue and even perhaps perpetuate the problem.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff