Medical City McKinney is operating a new wing dedicated to treating a rare and inflammatory skin condition with specialized care.
The overview
The hospital opened an 11-bed wing in January that’s dedicated to treating patients with advanced hidradenitis suppurativa, referred to as HS. The condition typically develops in armpits, inner thighs, breasts and groin areas, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.
Medical City McKinney CEO Mark Deno said the condition starts with an infected hair follicle that can create a wound with a “tunneling effect” under the skin. Medical City McKinney Nurse Manager Megan Palmer said it starts out looking like a pimple but it can tunnel below the skin as the condition progresses through three stages.
“What you see on the outside as a small acne area could really be a lot larger tunnelling under the skin,” Palmer said.
A closer look
Medical City McKinney treated nine patients with HS in 2025. The hospital has treated an additional 20 patients since the wing opened Jan. 5, Palmer said.
Palmer began working with Dr. Ramon Robles in treating patients with HS about a year and a half ago, she said. Deno and Medical City McKinney’s leadership team saw a “really big need” for these patients to have more specialized care, Palmer said.
HS is graded based on a three-stage scale called the Hurley Staging system, Deno said. When patients reach stage three, the condition has affected skin tissue all the way down to the muscle and all of it has to come out, he said.
“Every day, you’re going to have wound care in those areas to try to get that remaining tissue to start going through the healing process,” Deno said. “Which means that you’re going to have bandages in that area that need to come off every day.”
The hospital has trained specialized nurses to take care of these patients that are treated surgically by Dr. Robles, Palmer said. The condition can be treated with minimally invasive treatments such as topical creams through the first two stages but there is no cure, she said.
“What we primarily focus on is when it’s so out of control that all other conservative options have failed and patients have just been suffering,” Deno said.
The context
The FDA estimates HS affects between 1-4% of people in the U.S., according to its website. Specialized treatment can be hard to find anywhere in the country, Deno said.
“A lot of this was pioneering stuff because these patients from all across the country—they have nowhere to go,” he said.
Dr. Robles is part of a medical group called Thrive Reconstructive Surgery that offers HS treatment in several locations across the country. They have been “excellent partners” to Medical City McKinney in treating patients, Deno said.
“They are really, probably the only group that I’m aware of in the country that is passionate about this and trying to scale it to make sure that people don’t have to fly from Maine to Texas because we’re the closest place,” he said.
