Excisions

Whether or not your lesion is cancerous, we can assist with assessment, diagnosis and treatment. We have the expertise to treat a variety of benign and malignant skin lesions. Whatever the case, if you are a candidate for excision at Skin Institute, you can be sure that you are dealing with the experts.

When Skin Institute’s experts perform an excision, this is what you can expect:

• Local anaesthetic (our special low sting recipe)
• Excision usually elliptical in shape
• Tissue excised is sent to pathology laboratory for analysis
• Sutures usually removed after 1 week or may be dissolving
• Follow-up wound and scar maintenance

Your specialist will use a special marker to design the shape of the planned excision directly onto the skin. This will act as a guide for the surgeon ensuring a highly precise procedure. Usually, the excision will be elliptical in shape, to optimise the scar. In some cases, such as large lesions or complex locations (nose, ear, eyelid etc), your specialist may need to vary the shape of the excision, which may need a flap or skin graft to cover it.

The doctor will clean the skin and inject local anaesthetic before removing the lesion, including all the skin tissue down to the fat layer. Everything that is removed is placed in a histology jar and sent for pathological analysis.

The wound will then be surgically closed, typically with two layers of stitches. A dressing will be applied afterwards.

Your doctor may use dissolvable (absorbable) or non-absorbable sutures. If the latter is used, these will be removed after five to seven days for facial procedures and one-two weeks for other areas.

You may also be given special dressings to help improve your scar. These are to be used for the first few weeks following your procedure – your doctor will discuss the specifics with you further.