Treatments Your Provider May Prescribe
If the diagnosis is not obvious, the doctor may perform a skin biopsy. The procedure involves:
- Numbing the skin with an injectable anesthetic.
- Sampling a small piece of skin by using a flexible razor blade, a scalpel, or a tiny cookie cutter (called a "punch biopsy"). If a punch biopsy is taken, a stitch (suture) or two may be placed and will need to be removed 6–14 days later.
- Having the skin sample examined under a microscope by a specially trained physician (dermatopathologist).
Once the diagnosis of granuloma annulare is confirmed, you and your child's physician may decide not to treat it. Up to 70% of cases of granuloma annulare resolve on their own (spontaneously) within 2 years, even without treatment. However, the lesions may come back in up to 40% of people, usually at the same location as the original rash.
If the lesions of granuloma annulare are uncomfortable or unsightly, the physician may try:
- A prescription-strength steroid or cortisone cream
- Steroid injections directly into the lesions
- Freezing with liquid nitrogen (cryotherapy)
- Non-steroid topical anti-inflammatory creams such as tacrolimus or pimecrolimus
- Treatment with carbon dioxide laser
Self-Care Guidelines
