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| Photo of the proper 3mm "safety" margin cut to the fat with a scalpel around a small mole. The mole had been biopsied with the inverted pyramidal technique and showed abnormal cells when "read" by an independent lab. Notice how the skin of the cut ellipse of the tissue shrinks. The shrinkage occurs because the surrounding skin is no longer stretching the dermis (leather layer). Notice how the surrounding skin or defect expands approximately twice the size of the shrunken tissue. The expansion occurs because the shrunken skin no longer holds the surrounding skin together. | Photo of the ellipse (shown in the previous picture) of surrounding skin now sewn with deep stitches and a surface stitch that enters and exits the skin in only two places. This eliminates train tracks and reduces scarring. With this type of stitch, the Web site author allows patients traveling great distances to remove their own stitches painlessly one week after surgery. The skin is sewn specially to be raised along the centerline which increases tissue bonding and strength during healing and reduces the tendency for the wound/scar to stretch in the future months and years. |