Quantcast This ring-like lesion is smooth and without scaling, typical of granuloma annulare. This image displays a small, smooth, round, slightly elevated lesion typical of granuloma annulare. This image displays a smooth, light pink, ring-like, slightly elevated lesion typical of granuloma annulare. This image displays a smooth, ring-like lesion typical of granuloma annulare. Granuloma annulare has non-scaling, round, ring-like skin lesions. This image displays the raised edge typical of granuloma annulare as well as multiple lesions, combining the ring shapes. This image displays subtle ring shapes in a child with granuloma annulare. This image displays the tops of a hand and foot affected by granuloma annulare. This image displays granuloma annulare on the elbow.
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Granuloma Annulare:
A parent's guide to condition and treatment information

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Picture of Granuloma Annulare: This ring-like lesion is smooth and without scaling, typical of granuloma annulare. Divider line
This ring-like lesion is smooth and without scaling, typical of granuloma annulare.
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Treatments Your Physician May Prescribe
If the diagnosis is not obvious, the doctor may perform a skin biopsy. The procedure involves:
  1. Numbing the skin with an injectable anesthetic.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
Last Modified: 29 Jan 2008

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