A little known aspect of my practice is skin cancer on the face. Patients are referred with cancers on the eyelids which need to be removed and the eyelids reconstructed to look and function like a normal eyelid. This can be challenging as sometimes most of the lid is gone and I have to borrow tissue from the other lid to rebuild the missing lid. I also get patients who get their cancer removed elsewhere and they come here to get the wound closed nicely to minimize scarring. We also offer Co2 laser resurfacing of the wound to improve the scarring even more.

 

 

 

The best case I remember was that of a gentleman who came in for a face and necklift. During the surgery I noted a suspicious pigmented lesion on his neck. It was a simple matter to remove it and close the skin because the skin was already elevated off its underlying tissue. The lab came back to tell us it was a melanoma and we removed it completely. If I had not noticed it and taken it out, it may have killed him eventually.