Conservative treatment of keratoacanthoma.

In recent years there has been a trend toward more aggressive management of keratoacanthoma: surgical extirpation has been recommended as giving a superior result and resolving diagnostic problems. A selection of cases is presented suggesting that (1) surgical repair in the florid phase can be little short of mutilating, (2) the scars produced by the natural resolution of keratoacanthoma are usually insignificant, and (3) in those in which the residual scar must be "tidied up," the final result is more acceptable than that achieved through earlier interference. Emphasis is placed on close, personal follow-up, to preclude mistaken diagnosis.