Since this disorder was first described by Winkler1 in 1915, many types of treatment have been tried, including x-ray, radium, cryotherapy, and fulguration. The rate of recurrence is as high as 88%.2 Surgical excision is the best treatment, according to Shuman and Helwig,2 but it, too, has a recurrence rate of over 30% and in addition leaves objectional deformities.
The pathologic changes include chronic inflammation. Taubenhaus and Amromin,3 showed that local injection of hydrocortisone into lesions suppressed inflammatory reaction. It seemed, therefore, that this steroid might be an effective treatment, and it was used in two cases of chondrodermatitis helicis.
Case 1.—A white man, aged 38, complained of a painful nodule of his right ear for 15 years. In the past six months the pain became much severer and would interfere with sleep. On the outer border of the right ear was a well-defined, brown-red, elevated