Skin Cancer Surgery & Reconstruction

Unfortunately Australia has one of the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. In fact skin cancer is the most common form of cancers in Australia. This is related to, sun intensity, the hole in the ozone layer and UV rays in Australia.

The best treatment is prevention and sun protection. Most of the damage is done during the early ages but t is never too late to prevent further sun damage.

Plastic Surgeons are highly trained in treating skin cancers. Dr Safvat has a special interest with vast experience in treating skin cancers especially the more advanced ones that are too complex for local practitioners and skin cancer clinics to deal with.

Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) is the commonest of the cancers. In Australia the lifetime chance of getting a BCC is 1 in 4. Fortunately BCC does not spread to other organs but grows only locally. BCCs are more common on the face. Early BCC can be excised with simple surgery but more advanced one may need a local flap or graft.

Melanoma or Malignant Melanoma (MM) is the most aggressive and unpredictable of the skin cancers. It can affect any age and can rapidly spread though the body, depending on its thickness and the local lymph glands. Management of MM requires at least two operations. In the first one the stage of the MM is established to plan the final treatment.

Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is in between a BCC and MM. It can spread throughout the body but only in the very advanced stages. Most SCCs grow locally, and can be treated like a BCC.

Dr. Safvat is an accomplished plastic surgeon who offers wide range of surgical reconstructive options in treating Skin cancers to minimise deformity and scars associated with larger skin cancers especially on the face. Most skin cancers are small in size and therefore the wound will be stitched back together after removal.

If the cancer is too large, tissue may need to be moved around in order to reconstruct the defect left after the cancer is removed. In these cases a flap or a graft is used. Dr. Safvat is an expert at performing these “local flaps” and grafts, with the aim to get rid of the cancer completely as well as reconstruct the defect, leaving minimal cosmetic or functional deficit. A local flap is when tissue from the same area is rearranged and a graft is when a thin piece of skin is taken from another part of the body to reconstruct the cancer defect. Rarely, even more complex forms of reconstruction are required called “reconstructive microsurgery”.