Should I Have My Skin Lesion Removed?

You may not think of your skin as an organ the same way you do your heart, lungs, or liver, but it’s the largest organ you have, and it does a lot of amazing things to protect and heal your body. This thinly layered, highly flexible, strong barrier against external threats is constantly rebuilding its cells, allows you to feel, sweat, and helps keep your body temperature at normal levels.

Your skin is also pretty easy to cut, scrape, burn, or otherwise harm, and a variety of conditions can leave their mark as well, leading to skin lesions. While they’re often harmless, they can mean illnesses that compromise your health if not cared for properly. 

If you live in the Chicago, Illinois, area and notice skin lesions that may need help, our medical team at Michigan Avenue Primary Care can help. Let’s look at some basic facts about skin lesions, the types of lesions that can be potentially harmful, and treatment options.

Facts about skin lesions

Cuts and scrapes, sunburn, and insect bites are types of skin lesions, but so are other abnormalities on your skin. Primary skin lesions form without an underlying condition and include a wide range of marks like blisters, discoloration, pus-filled bumps, moles, pimples, elevated patches, and other growths that don’t look like the skin around it. 

Changes in primary lesions are known as secondary lesions, which can appear as thinning and wrinkling, crusting, fissures, eroding, ulcerating, scarring, and peeling. An example of this would be deep scarring after really bad acne.

Types of lesions that can be dangerous

Several types of skin lesions are signs of unpleasant conditions like allergic reactions, acne, psoriasis, rosacea, or chickenpox, but they can all be treated without requiring removal. 

Skin cancers are abnormal skin cells that can look like other lesions but often continue to change and develop into malignant tumors. They come in several forms, including: 

• Basal cell carcinoma: nonhealing open sores, bumps, or growths
• Squamous cell carcinoma: rough, scaly patches, warts, dark brown moles, or open sores
• Keratoacanthoma: tumors shaped like domes that grow quickly
• Melanoma: skin patches with irregular colors and odd-shaped borders or atypical moles

Actinic keratosis is a benign (noncancerous) skin problem that can develop into squamous cell carcinoma, especially if you have a weakened immune system. Most skin cancers are caused by overexposure to the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun but can result from using tanning beds, having a family history of these cancers, or having irregularly shaped moles.

Treatment options

If there is skin cancer present, it can be removed in several ways:

Excision

This option is a straightforward removal of the cancerous growth and some of the healthy tissue around it to prevent it from coming back.

Curettage and electrodesiccation

This treatment scrapes away the cancer cells using a spoon-shaped tool and burns any remaining cancerous material with an electric needle.

Photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy is a focused laser treatment that uses a light-sensitive drug and a light source to destroy abnormal cells. 

Cryosurgery

With this procedure, your skin is frozen using liquid nitrogen, and the thawing tissue is destroyed.

Mohs surgery

A precise process where the cancer cells are removed layer by layer and examined under a microscope until all evidence of cancer is gone.

Other methods can also treat skin cancer such as chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, and biologic therapy, each depending on your unique needs.

Removing skin is mainly reserved for cancers and extreme damage to your skin. If your skin is showing signs of either, make an appointment with our team at Michigan Avenue Primary Care to get it treated. Contact us by phone or online today.