An Afternoon in Minor Ops

Now I wouldn't consider myself squeamish at all, I love a bit of blood, guts and pussy wounds, but when it comes to skin things, and skin tags and peeling skin, I feeling like vomiting. So it was my lucky day when I got to observe Minor Ops and all the delights of removing bits of skin haha!

Even though I wanted to vom, it was actually really interesting to watch, and I guess I got used to little bits of skin towards the end!

The majority of the cases in minor ops were the removal of a SEBORRHEIC KERATOSES, which is basically a non cancerous growth of the skin, the skin may have suffered a trauma or infection, causing the body to heal itself, and in the process the body may have produced a little bit too much skin, and so causing this little crusty lump on the surface of the skin. They tend to be removed when they irritate the patient, so if they catch on their clothes, and more commonly in women underneath the bra strap.

Here is a step by step of how the little lump was removed:

1- Inject the site with local anesthetic. The local anesthetic may sometimes be mixed with adrenaline, to prevent excessive bleeding from that area. You can clearly see the effect of the adrenaline on the skin because it blanches the skin (leaves a little white patch).

2- The lump of skin is scraped off using a curette, which is a surgical instrument used for scraping biological tissue. It is a little hand tool with a circular blade.

3- The wound is then cauterized using a hot needle to prevent the skin from re-growing and to stop the bleeding. The smell of burning flesh is horrid by the way! It stinks!

4- Vaseline and a dressing are applied to the wound - all sorted! Above is an example of one! (yums)


The second most common thing that came into minor ops were little round scars that needed to be removed because they bleed when they are caught and itch. This patient had a nice little round scar on her leg, that kind of looked like a little wart, but wasn't.
The process was different to the removal of the keratoses, and involved stitches!

1-The site was injected with local anesthetic.

2- The scar was then removed using a scalpel, ensuring to cut along the skin creases. If you were to cut against the skin crease the skin might not heal as well. 2 incisions were made on either side of the scar and the scar was then lifted up off the skin and cut away!

3- The wound was then stitched up using 6 stitches. It may seem unsual to have so many stitches for such a little wound, but due to the pressure in the legs from constantly standing etc, the skin as to be pulled as tight and as close together as possible or the wound may leak!

4- The patient was advised to rest the leg for a good 48 hours to ensure it healed properly.



So all in all a really interesting day, which as helped me to slightly get over my fear of pulling bits of skin off! Although I think I might feel different when I'm doing it myself, just watching other people do it makes me feel funny!