Surgical treatment of skin cancer by the plastic surgeon

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

Skin cancer is the most common neoplasm in Brazil and it corresponds to 25% of all diagnosed malignant tumors. The best treatment is surgical resection in early stages. The disease is treated by a plastic surgeon along with a multidisciplinary team. The objective is to assess the effectiveness of surgical procedures performed by plastic surgeons to treat skin cancer.

Methods:

We analyzed medical records of 404 patients operated on between February 2009 and December 2012. Data analyzed included gender, age, diagnosis, localization and evolution.

Results:

Patients’ mean age was 62 years. A total of 53% of patients had basal cell carcinoma, 25.5% melanoma and 15.1% squamous cell carcinoma. There was a predominance of women in basal cell carcinomas (56%) and melanoma (54%) and predominance of men in squamous cell carcinomas (61%). Basal cell carcinomas (92.99%) and squamous (72.13%) were predominant in the head and neck, melanoma predominated in the trunk region (36.89%) and in lower limbs (24.27%). We performed 67 surgeries with sentinel lymph node, with positivity in 14.93%. Patients with melanoma who had metastasis accounted for 7.76% and 2.91% patients died.

Conclusion:

Plastic surgeons are one of the important professionals for skin cancer treatment. These professionals are the most skilled one to perform reconstructions after tumor resections, because during education they learn repair concepts using grafts and flaps especially focused on aesthetic appearance of patients. They can also perform surgery for sentinel lymph node and offer follow-up to patients with skin cancer.

Keywords:
Cutaneous neoplasms; Skin cancer; Carcinoma, basal cell; Carcinoma, squamous cell; Reconstructive surgical procedures