Comedones or Comedo

This name is applied to an affection of the skin characterized by little black points corresponding to the openings of the sebaceous follicles. If the skin in the neighborhood of these specks be squeezed between the fingernails, the sebaceous plug which fills the follicles will be pressed out.

This affection is more frequent in youth and adolescence than at any other ages. The glands of the face are the ones that are chiefly affected.

The causes of comedo are probably similar to those which lead to the development of ordinary acne simplex, in company with which affection they are usually found, though they sometimes exist without any inflammatory complication.




One author holds that comedones in children differ from those of adults in being mainly dependent on local causes, on their greater tendency to group and to be more closely set, in their involving the hairy scalp, and finally to their being generally readily amenable to treatment, all that is usually required being friction with a weak soft soap and spirit liniment, or a weak sulphur application may be employed in mild cases, preceded by fomentation with very hot water.


A peculiar variety is described by Dr. Dumesnil, as occurring in two patients. In both cases, the unusual eruption occurred on the back, which was also well covered with acne. The comedones, in both cases, were well marked, the skin not being elevated at the sites where they existed. The distribution of these comedones was all over the back, though inclined to be discrete. One peculiarity of the distribution was, that many of them were in pairs, the distance between each varying from one-eighth or less to about three-sixteenths of an inch, with a channel connecting them. By bringing firm lateral pressure upon one of the comedones in the direction of the other, both follicles were emptied from one point, and a fine probe introduced at one opening would appear at the other. There was but one plug, and that was black at both extremities.