Favre-Racouchot syndrome: a case for smokers' comedones.

Smoking has many known cutaneous manifestations, including an increased association with premature aging, 1,2 which have recently been thoroughly reviewed by Smith and Fenske. 3 Many authors 4,5 recognize the existence of "smoker's face." At our dermatology clinic, one of us (G.C.K) noted that Favre-Racouchot syndrome (nodular elastosis with cysts and comedones) seemed more common in smokers. A survey was designed to examine this issue. Materials and Methods. Our cancer screening clinic serves a mostly self-referred, white, retired military population in San Antonio, Tex. Fifty-six consecutive patients with Favre-Racouchot syndrome (subjects) were asked about their history of smoking. Patients were classified as smokers if they had a greater than 5 pack-year smoking history. This group was compared with 309 consecutive patients without Favre-Racouchot syndrome (controls). The survey was not designed to measure the incidence of Favre-Racouchot syndrome since subjects were collected over a longer period than controls. All observers were