Choosing the right surgeon for skin cancer surgery is key to achieving the results you want – and a return to health.
At Florida’s Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center in Windermere, Dr. Jeannette Hudgens has years of experience and is one of the Orlando area’s top doctors for treating skin cancer. To learn more or to schedule an appointment with Dr. Hudgens, contact Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center today.
There are a number of surgical techniques and approaches to address skin cancer before it spreads to other parts of the body. At Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center, patients meet individually with Dr. Hudgens for consultations that allow her to determine the safest and most effective surgery for you.
Basal and Squamous Cell Skin Cancers
A variety of surgeries can be used to treat basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers. Which approach is best depends on the patient, how large his or her cancer is, where it is located on the body and what type of skin cancer it is.
Many surgeries can be done in our Windermere offices using a local anesthetic. Other surgeries may have to be done in hospital settings.
Some surgical techniques used to treat skin cancer include:
- Excision: This procedure is similar to a biopsy. The patient’s skin is numbed by an anesthetic and cancerous growths are removed with a surgical knife. Some surrounding skin may also be removed. The patient’s skin is then stitched back together. Small scars are left behind.
- Curettage and electrodesiccation: This approach has the surgeon scrape out cancerous tissue with a curette. This is a medical instrument that is thin, with a sharp and looped edge on the end. The area can then be treated with an electrode, which kills remaining cancer cells. This is an in-office procedure and is effective in treating superficial cancers located on the top layer of your skin.
- Mohs surgery: This technique can be used if a high risk of cancer recurrence is present or when the extent of skin cancer’s presence is not certain. This type of surgery preserves as much healthy skin as possible and Mohs has a very impressive success rate.
- Lymph node surgery: If lymph nodes located close to squamous or basal cell skin cancer are growing, there is a chance cancer may move into the lymph nodes as well. Nodes can be biopsied or removed in a separate operation known as a lymph node dissection. Nodes can then be examined for cancer. This surgery typically is more involved and requires that you receive general anesthesia.
Surgery is typically the most-used treatment for treating melanoma, which is the most serious type of skin cancer. But surgery for melanoma can help cure the problem, if melanoma is diagnosed early enough.
That’s why annual full-body skin exams are so important to cancer prevention – and a key part of our practice at Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center.
If melanoma is diagnosed after a biopsy, the area of skin will likely need to be worked on a second time to help make sure all of the cancer is removed. This relatively minor surgery can successfully treat the majority of thin melanomas.
A diagnosis of skin cancer can be frightening, but with proper treatment and care, most forms of skin cancer are not life-threatening.
At Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center, we treat our patients like family and offer the latest treatments and surgical procedures to restore you to health. Contact us today to schedule your consultation.