Surgical measures are an important component of dermatologic therapy, and should be adopted for lesions or diseases where medicinal therapy is ineffective or if the patient desires a quick result which cannot be achieved by medicinal treatment.
The lesions/diseases which require surgical procedures include:
- Benign lesions such as warts, molluscum contagiosum, corns, granuloma pyogenicum, melanocytic, vascular or epidermal naevi, adenoma sebaceum, trichoepithelioma, syringoma, cysts, milia and xanthelasma,
- Malignant tumours such as malignant melanoma, squamous cell or basal cell epitheliomas
- Resistant lesions of vitiligo, male pattern baldness, cicatrical alopecia, acne comedones, cystic acne, and
- Scars produced by any disease especially small pox, acne, burns or other injuries.
Various procedures which can be adopted in such cases include:
Chemo-surgery which involves destruction of the lesion with cauterizing chemicals
Electro-surgery which involves destruction of tissues with electrically heated electrodes or with electric current
Cryo-surgery involving destruction of the lesions with cold
Laser-surgery involving destruction with lasers, and
Surgery with simple excision of the tissues
. In most cases, it is possible to treat the lesion in more than one way. One should however, select the method in which one has the greatest experience.
