Acne inversa also known as hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic inflammatory disorder of sebaceous follicles and terminal hair follicles. To put it in simple words acne inversa is basically a disease which is caused in the inverse areas of body such as arm pits and similar parts which have skin to skin contact with each other and where apocrine glands and hair follicles are found.

Acne inversa becomes evident as a series from single boil-like, pus-filled abscesses, or hard sebaceous lumps, to painful, deep-seated, often inflamed clusters of lesions with chronic seepage involving significant scarring. The parts of the body where the abscesses are large as baseballs are extremely painful if touched and they remain on that body part for years with occasional to frequent periods of inflammation, culminating in drainage, often leaving open wounds that will not heal and even these are often triggered by stress, hormonal changes, or humid heat. Drainage of the lumps provides some relief from severe, often weakening, pressure pain; however, pain occurs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the acne inversa patients and at times it becomes extremely unbearable.

Now when this abscesses remains for years it is quite understandable that it may cause other problems as well as the bacteria have the highest tendency to gather here. Hence these may lead to the formation of sinus tracts, or tunnels connecting the abscesses under the skin. At this stage, complete healing is usually not possible, and progression of the disease in the area is inevitable.

As I have already mentioned drainage takes place from the prolonged acne inversa may have a foul odor, fever and fatigue caused by acute inflammation and the physical restrictions caused by pain and skin deformation. Due to this pain people often cannot work, drive, exercise or even perform day-to-day tasks, and are ashamed to go out in public. People who are suffering from the acne inversa not only have to go through severe pain of their inversa but also they get depressed and hypertensive because they are unable to go out in public and usually people try to avoid people who show these kind of symptoms of acne inversa.

One thing that should be informed via this article that acne inversa remains untreated for years because the people suffering from this acne are usually embarrassed to go out and even consult doctor for this issue and finally when they do go the acne has changed so much due to its occurrence from several years that the disease is frequently misdiagnosed. Only relatively few physicians are able to recognize it and even when they do, suggested treatments are often ineffective, temporary and sometimes even harmful. There is neither known cure nor any consistently effective treatment; what works for one person may not work for another. In advanced, chronic cases, surgery is often the choice, but recurrences of acne inversa are not uncommon.