Surgical Removal of atypical Moles
Nevi, or moles, are skin lesions that often begin to grow in childhood, or have appeared on the skin by early adult life. Raised or flat, pigmented lesions and can appear anywhere on your body and cause potential trouble.
Dysplastic nevus is a term used for mole with specific characteristic, detected during tissue exam with microscope.
Diagnosis:
Examination with digital dermatosope allows for visualization of details on skin surface, pigment distribution, texture, outline border, however with dermatoscopy physician can only determine the potential for malignancy of nevus.
Definitive diagnosis is reached after biopsy of suspicious lesion.
Treatment:
Dysplastic Nevi (DN) are considered in- between acquired melanocytic nevi and melanoma. Treatment depends on category of nevus.
Mildly dysplastic nevi
- usually do not need additional treatment
- self-observation and photography of post-biopsy site might be recommended
Severely dysplastic nevi
- complete surgical excision with clear margins should be performed
Moderately dysplastic nevi, are the ones where consensus among physicians is hard to reach, ultimately decision is based on patient history, age, location, among other factors, including patient’s personal preference.
Laser Assisted Mole Removal
Did you know that we don’t use traditional scalpels in our clinic?
CO2 Laser incision, excision, ablation, vaporization and coagulation are used widely in dermatology, plastic surgery, oral surgery, general surgery, and many others. Since 1998, we have been successfully utilizing CO2 lasers in almost all skin surgeries.
CO2 lasers can be used instead of surgical scalpel in procedures involving removal of benign and malignant moles.
From our experience with use of CO2 laser in dermatologic procedures, a highly focused laser cutting beam significantly decreases amount of bleeding during the procedure itself, which helps with healing and appearance of a post-excision scar*.
CO2 lasers are more difficult to operate than a typical scalpel, which is why not every doctor will use them. Dr. Jozef Tryzno is a Fellow of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery
After your procedure, it's highly important that you do your part, in taking care of treated area to ensure favorable outcome:
- Following your post-operative instructions is extremely important in the first few weeks after your procedure
- Remember that your healing wound is going to be extremely sensitive to muscle movement. For example: if you had an excision on your calf, stay away from bicycling, running, squatting, or other strenuous activities. The sutures used after an excision are much stronger than your skin, and will tear through with too much muscle tension.
- Avoid constant irritation for a fresh scar in later stages of healing. Please remember, it might take up to 6 months for skin heal and regenerate.
VISIT: SKIN CANCERS & MELANOMA
Finally, no matter what procedure you had, whether a laser or scalpel was used to cut through your skin, it is important to acknowledge that kids, teenagers and young adults are at very high risk of keloid scarring.
To schedule visit for procedure or to ask questions
Call: (847) 518-9999
*Every patient is unique, and cosmetic results can vary between patients. No two laser treatments will get same results – even if performed by the same physician on patients with similar conditions.