Australia leads the world in the incidence of skin cancers including malignant melanoma. The treatment of these lesions involves excision of the cancer with an adequate margin to ensure clearance and subsequent reconstruction of the defect that results. Complex nose, eyelid, cheek and lip reconstruction requires considerable skill and training to ensure that the best outcomes are achieved. Plastic surgeons are considered the best at performing these procedures.
Professor Deva performs a wide variety of skin excisions and reconstruction for a wide variety of malignant and benign skin lesions. Smaller procedures are carried out in the office under local anaesthetic. For lesions that have been incompletely excised, Professor Deva may recommend excision with immediate histopathological examination (frozen section). This procedure is carried out in hospital with the help of a pathologist to examine the specimen to ensure clearance is achieved at the time of surgery.