Parry-Romberg syndrome

For a lay person:

Parry-Romberg syndrome is a rare condition in which the skin and soft tissues on one side of the face slowly shrink, usually starting in childhood or the teens.

For a trained medical person:

Progressive hemifacial atrophy, related to linear morphoea (en coup de sabre). It may involve neurological and eye complications. Management: immunosuppression in the active phase and reconstructive surgery once stable.

In Chinese medicine:

Flaws and Sionneau's textbook differentiates this condition as one pattern: Qi and blood deficiency complicated by phlegm and blood stasis. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.