Derm Surgery

I had a few half-days in surgery clinic. Dermatologic surgery seems to encompass two things: biopsy and excision. I got to do both a punch and a shave biopsy, which were fun. The shave biopsy uses a small blade to shave off the top of a skin lesion to send to pathology; we did it for a suspicious potential basal cell carcinoma. The punch biopsy uses a round knife to take out an entire lesion concerning for melanoma. Neither are particularly risky or harmful procedures, but cosmesis is often important to patients. I also got to see several excisional biopsies and Mohs surgeries, a labor intensive surgery that excises cancers extremely precisely, using real-time microscopic pathologic evaluation. This allows minimal scarring on sensitive areas such as the face.