What are Skin Lesions?
Skin Lesions are areas of skin particularly different from the surrounding skin. The areas generally appear as a lump, or sore. Skin lesions are abnormal growths of skin that may or may not be cancerous and therefore lead to other, more dangerous health concerns. Skin lesions include warts, moles, skin tags, or scars.
Why remove Skin Lesions?
Skin lesions are a particularly tricky area of skin, as they may or not be cancerous. Therefore, the only true means of identifying the true danger behind them is by performing a skin lesion biopsy, where a small cross-section is removed from the lesion and the tissue is tested for cancer.
If the lesion proves to be a cancerous melanoma or part of another dangerous dermal issue, then that is clearly the number one reason for it to be removed as the cancerous tissue may spread to other parts of the body.
Other common reasons for removing skin lesions include:
- Cosmetic reasons. Skin lesions tend to be unwanted and aesthetically unpleasing, therefore patients feel they must be removed for cosmetic reasons.
- Chronic Skin Irritation: Some skin lesions are the product of chronic or non-chronic skin irritations. They may cause itching or discomfort, and patients would prefer them to be removed.
Skin Lesion Removal
Skin lesions can be removed using a number of methods, the most common methods include:
- Excision surgery: Removal using a surgical knife or scalpel. The lesion is cut away from the surrounding tissue.
- Laser Surgery: Using a high-energy laser light beam, the skin lesions tissue is removed form the skin’s surface. Laser skin resurfacing can generally remove light blemishes, however with more pronounced lesions it may require a few procedures, or combinations of procedures involving lasers.
- Electrosurgery: Using electrical currents we are able to selectively destroy the skin lesions tissue, leaving the surrounding tissue untouched.
- Cryosurgery: Using a cold liquid instrument, we freeze the lesion and remove it. Freezing it makes the tissue far easier to be removed.
- Curettage: Using a surgical cutting loop instrument, we are able to scrape the skin from the skin’s surface, removing the lesion from the surrounding skin.
- Mohs Micrographic Surgery: Generally used for cancerous growths or lesions. We remove small pieces of tissue, then view them under a microscope to inspect for cancerous cells. The goal of this procedure is to slowly, gradually remove small amounts of tissue so as to leave as much healthy tissue behind and remove as much cancerous tissue as possible. Using this we can remove the entirety of the skin lesion and try to keep as much healthy tissue behind as possible.
Most of these procedures can be completed in far less than hour and will require very little downtime. We recommend cleaning and changing the dressing of any wounds that may be left over.
If you are in need of Skin Lesion removal contact us today as it is important to insure the health of the skin tissue as well as its removal.
