Pityrosporumfolliculitisalso known as fungal acne orMalasseziafolliculitisis aninflammatoryskin disease affecting your face, trunk, and neck.
This yeast lives naturally on your skin.
This article describes Pityrosporum folliculitis symptoms, growth, and treatment.
Reproduced with permission from © DermNetdermnetnz.org2023.
Reproduced with permission from DermNetdermnetnz.org2023.
How Do You Recognize Pityrosporum Folliculitis?
Symptoms of Pityrosporum folliculitis are similar to the effects of traditional acne.
As a result, it is often confused with and misdiagnosed as acne.
However, unlike acne, Pityrosporum folliculitis causes itchy lesions in 80% of cases.
Pityrosporurm yeast is a normal inhabitant of your skin within the hair follicles.
Pityrosporum yeast turns into folliculitis when Pityrosporum yeast overgrows and clogs hair follicles.
When antibiotics suppress bacteria, it creates the perfect environment for Pityrosporum to flourish and overgrow.
Other factors can also support the yeast overgrowth throw in leading to Pityrosporum folliculitis.
A skin scraping for yeast may be used to confirm the diagnosis.
Pityrosporum Folliculitis vs. Acne Vulgaris
Pityrosporum folliculitis is often misdiagnosed as acne.
Treatment for Pityrosporum folliculitis can involve oral and topical treatments, home remedies, and lifestyle changes.
Oral Treatment
Oral treatment is regarded as the most effective option for Pityrosporum folliculitis.
It works by directly killing or preventing the growth of fungal cells.
A drastic improvement in symptoms usually occurs with the use of antifungal medication.
Oral treatment is usually prescribed daily for one to three weeks.
For severe cases of Pityrosporum folliculitis, treatment with oralisotretinoinmay be appropriate.
Topical Treatments
Topical antifungal medication may be appropriate for mild cases of Pityrosporum folliculitis.
Topical treatments can be used in combination with oral treatment.
They can also be used to maintain results and prevent recurrence, which is common.
Common topical treatments include the following treatments:
Topical antifungals and shampoos are often important to maintenance therapy.
After the initial treatment, therapy usually continues two to three times weekly for one to two months.
These treatments may even worsen your condition by killing bacteria and allowing the yeast to flourish.
However, you may need to use antibiotics for another reason while you have Pityrosporum folliculitis.
Research indicates that takingprobioticsalongside antibiotics can lessen or prevent some antibiotic-induced side effects.
Probiotics may help to preserve the diversity and composition of the bacteria.
They may even help protect some “friendly” bacteria that reduce inflammation.
Summary
Pityrosporum folliculitis is a skin disease that comes up whenever yeast in your hair follicle overgrows.
This problem causes pimples on your forehead, cheeks, trunk, and neck.
It can’t be treated with common acne treatments.
Instead, these treatments may support the spread of this disease rather than heal it.
Oral or topical anti-fungal drugs provide the best results.
Treatment often continues after the problem clears to avoid recurrence.
Making lifestyle changes can help promote healing and lower your risk of having the problem return after symptoms clear.
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