title: Is it really necessary to make wide excisions for basal cell carcinoma treatment?
abstract: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the common malignancy at the skin arising from the cells of the basal layer of the epithelium or from the external root sheath of the hair follicle. It usually occurs at sites with the greatest concentration of pilosebaceous follicles, and it is directly related to sun exposure. Metastasis is rare, but it recurs if it is inadequately treated. For preventive recurrence, BCC is often excised with wide skin margins. It leads to sacrifice of healthy tissue and causes morbidity problems. In our study, we make a treatment plan of excising the primary BCC with its natural tumor margin. Incomplete excision rates were compared between the patient group in which the excisions were performed according to the previously mentioned literature knowledge and the patient group in which excisions were made along the visible outer margins of erythema or induration area surrounding the tumor. In conclusion, there was no statistically significant difference between these 2 groups. This treatment modality is suitable for the excision of BCC, and it eliminates the need for the sacrifice of healthy tissue. This technique also offers the successful functional and aesthetic outcome.Therefore, unnecessary tissue sacrifice can be prevented with this method of treatment. We think our method is the new horizon to ongoing debate of safe excision concept of BCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of IInd Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ramazan Erkin
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Unlü
authors.forename: Serdar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Altun
authors.forename: Metin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kerem
authors.forename: Mustafa Nihat
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Koç
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000601:surgery*; D005153:Facial Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000517:prevention & control; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual / Q000517:prevention & control; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000379:methods*