Skin Cancer & Other Skin Lesions - Dr. Lisa Sowder, Seattle Plastic Surgeon

Case Description

1 of 8

This handsome devil is a patient’s husband. He had this skin lesion called a hemangioma on his cheek. I was able to remove this under a local anesthetic. He healed really well with very little scarring.

Case Description

2 of 8

This lady had cystic acne as a teenager and was left with deep scars on her chin. I injected some Juvederm to the scar during her facelift procedure. Her acne scars are almost invisible. She will need to continue injections every 1 – 2 years to maintain a nice correction.

Case Description

3 of 8

This 62-year-old golf pro had a basal cell cancer excised from her forehead by her dermatologist who used a procedure called “Moh’s excision”. The cancer was removed bit by bit and examined under the microscope until all of the cancer was removed. With Moh’s excision, recurrence rate is very low (under 5%) but the defect can be quite large. This lady had reconstruction with a forehead flap. She’s back in the swing and hopefully using sun block.

Case Description

4 of 8

This Santa (really) was returning from a corporate event and slipped and fell on the sidewalk. He suffered a complex laceration to his face. I stitched him up in the emergency room and five months later he’s almost as good as new. By the way, there was no lump of coal in my stocking on Christmas morning.

Case Description

5 of 8

This lovely young barista was sent to me by her dermatologist for treatment of this facial melanoma. Although this melanoma is quite large, it was the type that grows horizontally and not vertically. I designed a “rhomboid” flap to allow me to get generous margins around the melanoma and still close the defect without causing any distortion of her face. She healed beautifully and only wears cover-up over her scar for special occasions. Although she is considered cured of this melanoma, she will need lifelong follow-up with her dermatologist for early detection of any future melanomas.

Case Description

6 of 8

This handsome devil had an abnormal collection of blood vessels near his eye that looked very much like a bruise. He was tired of people asking if he had been punched in the eye. Two attempts at non-surgical treatment by his dermatologist failed. I excised the area and the resultant scar just looks like a natural skin crease.

Case Description

7 of 8

This middle aged gentleman presented with this very large skin cancer. It had been present for years and like many men, he just kept putting it off. Finally his wife drug him in for treatment. Lucky for him, this was a basal cell cancer. This type of skin cancer can grow very large but not spread to other organs. In order to excise this large cancer and be able to close the resultant wound, I needed to do a little rearranging of his shoulder area. In this case I used a “rhomboid flap” that uses the rules of geometry to “borrow from Peter to pay Paul”. He is shown about 3 months after his surgery healed up and cancer free. Next time, I hope he doesn’t wait so long!

Case Description

8 of 8

This middle aged construction worker came in with one of the largest facial cysts I have seen. You know the stereotype of the guy who just puts off and puts off a medical problem? Well, that stereotype is often true. Lucky for this fellow, he came in before this cyst got infected which would have been a big mess. I removed this monster in my office under a local anesthetic and we had him back to the construction site within a few days.