Skin Cancer Removal Surgery

What is Skin Cancer Surgery?

 

Skin cancers are caused from overexposure to the sun, resulting in damage to the skin and abnormal growth of cells. The Australian population has a very high incidence of developing skin cancers.

If you have a suspicious lesion on your skin, a biopsy is usually taken to confirm if malignancy is present and, if so, what type of skin cancer it is. 

 

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What Can I Expect with Skin Cancer Surgeries?

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Each type of skin cancer has a different treatment according to the nature of the disease. The lesion is excised and sent to pathology for testing, to ensure the entire cancer has been removed. More aggressive cancers require a larger margin of skin surrounding the lesion to be excised. 

 

Depending on the size and location of the lesion, the skin may close directly with sutures. If the skin is too tight, some tissue may need to be moved around to close the area (local flap). This is more common for facial lesions. Alternatively, a skin graft can be taken from another area of the body (usually the groin) to cover the defect.

 

A Quick Overview

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Surgery time: 30 mins - 2 hours.

Length of stay in hospital: Day surgery.

Recovery time: (The following are approximate times.)

Driving 24 hours,

Office work 24 hours,

Strenuous work/exercise 4-6 weeks if the movement will affect this area of the body during healing.  

Incision and scar: This will depend on the size of the lesion and the type of skin cancer. Up to a 6mm margin around the lesion could be required. 

 

Other Things to Consider

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• For lower limb skin grafts, it is important that you keep your leg elevated as much as possible for the first 2 - 3 weeks.

• Skin grafts have the potential to fail. In this case, another skin graft or an alternative option may be required. 

• Some skin cancers can be treated with a cream, rather than surgical excision.

• You will be phoned or attend the clinic one week after your surgery to receive your histopathology results. A copy will be sent to your referring Doctor. 

• High-risk skin cancers will require regular physical examinations or ultrasounds of your lymph nodes to look for any abnormalities.

• For some high-risk skin cancers (most commonly melanomas), you may require a sentinel node biopsy. 

• For some high-risk skin cancers, regular PET scans may also be recommended to test for spread throughout the body.     

 

The three main types of skin cancers are