removing a mole

i have a mole that is fairly close to my pacemaker. need to get removed. i know they can't burn it off, but how about freezing? otherwise, i guess just cutting, right??

2 Comments

Moles

by Selwyn - 2014-08-13 01:08:58

Any mole that shows change should be removed, be it pigment spillage out of the border, itch, bleeding, irregular pigmentation, size or shape.

There are available machines that scan the surface with special light and can give a more accurate idea of what it is than a doctor using eyesight alone ( seeModern Techniques for Computer-Aided Melanoma Diagnosis by Maciej Ogorzałek1, Leszek Nowak, Grzegorz Surówka and Ana Alekseenk).

At the end of the day, safest policy is excision with a suitable margin of unaffected skin.

Donr is correct, in that freezing and burning could leave behind malignant cells ( which is the worry).

Luckily skin stretches so it doesn't matter that it is over the pacemaker. Care is needed to remove the skin and not the deeper tissues that could open up the pacemaker sac.

Depends upon .....

by donr - 2014-08-13 12:08:09

.....the mole. Dr's don't just take off moles for the fun of it. If it is the least bit suspect for being malignant, it gets cut off. Burning generally is used for objects that they have no suspicion at all about because the object is destroyed & cannot be biopsied. Freezing is used for flat surfaced lesions that are known to be non malignant, not for moles.

Cutting for a mole is no big deal - just a local, followed by 2 min of cutting, followed by a few minutes of sewing or a couple steri-strips put on the incision & it's over.

Don

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