Surgical Removal

There are numerous surgical skin cancer removal options – some of which are discussed at greater length on their own pages. They include excision with simple closure, excision with skin graft, excision with skin flap, curettage with cautery, electrosurgery and Mohs Micrographic surgery/PDEMA surgery.

Each procedure has its different benefits, and we will always be sure to find the treatment option with the best optimal outcome for you.

In addition to consultations, there’s usually a two-step process to surgical skin cancer treatment:

• Biopsy of the problem area (for more information, see the Biopsies page)
• Surgical (or other) removal of the cancerous tissue

The different surgical treatment options are briefly discussed here – more information can either be found on their respective pages, or your doctor can better inform you when you have a consultation.

• Excision with simple closure. Please visit Excisions
• Excision with skin graft. If a whole lesion is removed and stitching the skin back together isn’t feasible, a piece of skin from another area of the body will be used to cover this gap and close the wound.
• Excision with skin flap. As with excision with skin graft, this process is used when the gap is too large to simply stitch – but in this case, the surrounding skin is used.
• Curettage with cautery. This is when the lesion is scraped away and excess bleeding is avoided with a specialised heat source.
• Mohs Micrographic surgery / PDEMA surgery. More information on these highly effective, highly specialised procedures can be seen on the dedicated page.