2 Overview Dermatolaxis is a rare skin disease with elastic tissue defect. The skin area of the whole body is too large, which exceeds the amount needed to wrap the body. The fat of skin and subcutaneous tissue is loose, and some folds hang down, which is now considered to be caused by autosomal recessive inheritance or incomplete autosomal dominant inheritance. Skin relaxation is most obvious in the face, and patients often have loose eyelids, cheeks and neck, showing a typical "hound face". It does not include skin relaxation caused by other diseases, but also can invade other connective tissues of human body, such as blood vessels, heart, lungs and urinary tract.
Etiology The number of dermal elastic fibers decreased, and they broke and degenerated into particles. Under the electron microscope, the elastic fiber structure is dense and silver stained. There was no change in collagen tissue and no calcium deposition in dermis. Pulmonary elastic fibers showed the same changes.
Symptom 4. 1 Congenital type occurs at birth or several months after birth. The skin is fat, soft and slack, easy to pull up, and it bounces back to its original state very slowly after being released. The skin on the face, eyelids, ears and other places is slack, wrinkled and drooping, like an old man, with a special appearance. The same changes can also be seen in the wrist, knee, ankle, abdominal wall and other places or the whole body skin. The skin surface is normal or slightly rough and feels normal. This disease has no joint relaxation and can be distinguished from skin hyperelasticity. The disease develops slowly, and the degree of relaxation increases with age, so it can't return to normal.
4.2 Acquired type often occurs after puberty, and some even begin in middle age or later. Occasionally, there will be inflammation or edema, and the skin will sag and fold. Skin changes are the same as congenital types. In addition to skin changes, internal organs are still slack and inelastic, such as inguinal hernia, tracheobronchial megalopathy, emphysema, aneurysm caused by involving large blood vessels, ureteral dilatation and overlong. So some people call it fully elastic tissue dissociation.
There is usually no special treatment for skin relaxation, and patients often complain about aging face in plastic surgery. There is no specific drug treatment for this disease. Dapsone can control early edema, but it can't stop the progress of the disease. Patients with flabby skin have good wound healing, normal scar formation and normal coagulation function, so patients without serious cardiovascular abnormalities have good indications for plastic surgery.