Cyrosurgery versus Electrocautery for pre-Skin Cancer

[longknife]

For years, my doctor has used the popular treatment of freezing those areas he – and I – identify as solar keratosis, or the first stage of skin cancer.

This last time, he surprised my with the electrocautery procedure explained at Cauterization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In some ways, it was far less painful, only the prick of the needle used to numb the area he was going to work on. Then, he burns off the area and an assistant came along with what looked like a tiny hoe to remove the burned tissue. Far less scarring and very little bleeding. He put on those small, round bandaids but most fell of within a few hours.

I liked it more than the freezing and it already appears that the scabbing is going away faster and leaving less redness.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Tanned skin is damaged skin. And every sunburn increases the chance of skin cancer. Sunlight is like any other radiation, effects are cumulative over our lifetime. Most weather websites have a UV score for the day and even by the hour (intellicast.com) During the Summer UV can get into the 'better off staying inside' level so it's worth taking a look at. Exposure is even higher than the day's score because of light reflecting off surfaces, could easily get a double dose from it bouncing off light-colored surfaces or water. And tanning deliberately is tantamount to suicide.

 

[mamooth]

I take off any actinic keratosis myself with one of those kits they sell for freezing off warts. I've done it twice. Works fine. Though I can see how you'd want another method if you had lots and lots of them.

If you don't know what an actinic keratosis looks like ... it starts out as a puffy patch of red skin that won't go away, usually appearing in sun-exposed areas of the skin. If you don't get it treated, it can grow and get uglier, and in some cases turn into skin cancer.

Why do it myself? Because doctors' offices are full of germs. I try to avoid them. If I've got a skin tag or some other protruding little nubbin (and I'll be disappointed if nobody jumps on that setup line), I numb it with an ice cube and snip it off myself.