The Drs: Skin Cancer Removal Technique
The Doctors took a closer look at a cutting edge procedure for those diagnosed with skin cancer. (Alexilus / Shutterstock.com)
The Doctors shared that more than 3.5 million Americans hear the words “you have skin cancer” every year. They followed a man named Tracy to find out just how much the cancer has spread. Dr Justin Piasecki explained that Tracy has a Basal Cell Carcinoma, which is the most common form of skin cancer. He has it on the left side of his nose, and Tracy said it looked like a normal mole, but he got it checked out by her dermatologist and soon enough found out it was cancerous.
Dr Piasecki said he can remove the cancer and reconstruct the patient at the same time. The first step is to remove the cancer and then use a microscope to make sure there’s not any more cancer. Dr Piasecki removed the cancer, making Tracy cancer-free, but then explained that the wound was too large to simply close it with stitches.
They had to place a piece of cartilage to allow the skin to regrow, and in order to do that, they took a piece of cartilage from the ear and stitched it into place in the nose.
The Drs: Cancer Removal & Reconstruction
The Doctors welcomed Tracy and Dr Piasecki to the show. Tracy said he’s feeling great, and Dr Drew Ordon explained that a lot of people are scared at the thought of having a big open wound after skin cancer removal. That’s why it’s so great that Dr Piasecki could remove the cancer and reconstruct the area at the same time.
He said sometimes they can even make things look better than they did before the procedure. There are often times when he’ll use different procedures, such as the one for a cleft lip, to do a lip repair. If you look at Tracy’s nose now, you can’t even tell he had a procedure done.
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