What causes acne on the face in summer

In the summer, people will feel very uncomfortable on their faces, and they always feel very dry, which makes it easy for acne to grow. This is mainly caused by the blockage of pores on the face. If you don’t control it in time, your skin will become worse and worse, and even cause a series of symptoms. If you are not careful, you may also experience symptoms related to bacterial infection.

Causes

The occurrence of acne is closely related to factors such as excessive sebum secretion, blockage of the sebaceous gland ducts of the hair follicles, bacterial infection and inflammatory response. After entering puberty, the level of androgens, especially testosterone, in the human body increases rapidly, promoting the development of sebaceous glands and producing a large amount of sebum. At the same time, abnormal keratinization of the sebaceous gland ducts of the hair follicles causes blockage of the ducts, hindering the excretion of sebum and forming keratin plugs, also known as micro-acne. Various microorganisms, especially Propionibacterium acnes, multiply in large numbers in the hair follicles. The lipase produced by Propionibacterium acnes breaks down sebum to produce free fatty acids, while also attracting inflammatory cells and mediators, ultimately inducing and aggravating the inflammatory response.

Clinical manifestations

Skin lesions often occur on the face and upper chest and back. Non-inflammatory lesions of acne appear as open and closed comedones. The typical skin lesions of closed comedones (also known as whiteheads) are skin-colored papules about 1 mm in size with no obvious hair follicle openings. Open comedones (also called blackheads) appear as dome-shaped papules with significantly enlarged follicular openings. Acne will further develop into various inflammatory skin lesions, manifesting as inflammatory papules, pustules, nodules and cysts. Inflammatory papules are red and vary in diameter from 1 to 5 mm; pustules are uniform in size and filled with white pus; nodules are larger than 5 mm in diameter and feel hard and painful to the touch; cysts are located deeper and are filled with a mixture of pus and blood. These lesions may also fuse to form large inflammatory plaques and sinus tracts. After the inflammatory skin lesions subside, pigmentation, persistent erythema, and depressed or hypertrophic scars are often left behind. Clinically, acne is divided into 3 degrees and 4 levels according to the nature and severity of acne lesions: Level 1 (mild): only comedones; Level 2 (moderate): in addition to comedones, there are also some inflammatory papules; Level 3 (moderate): in addition to comedones, there are also more inflammatory papules or pustules; Level 4 (severe): in addition to comedones, inflammatory papules and pustules, there are also nodules, cysts or scars.

diagnosis

Based on the characteristics of onset in adolescents, distribution of skin lesions on the face, chest and back, and the main manifestations of polymorphic skin lesions such as whiteheads, blackheads, inflammatory papules, pustules, etc., it is easy to diagnose clinically and usually no other examinations are required. Sometimes it is necessary to differentiate it from rosacea, disseminated miliary lupus faciis, sebaceous adenoma, etc.