Benign Skin Lesion Removal

What is a benign skin lesion?

A benign skin lesion can be a range of lumps and bumps including moles, cysts, keratoses, skin tags, calluses, corns and warts. Most skin growths (lesions) are harmless and don’t need to be removed. But your doctor may recommend you have a lesion removed if it’s causing you significant problems, or if there’s any doubt it could be cancerous.

There is very little risk of bleeding, infection or scars when removing these.

 

What does the treatment of benign skin lesions involve?

Treatment will depend on the size of the lesion, how deep it is and where it is on your body. Benign skin lesion removal takes place under local anaesthetic and can be done with one of the following procedures:

• Partial removal, where your surgeon ‘layers’ the lesion off at its base so it is at the level of the surrounding skin. This method is used for lesions such as keratosis, skin tags and flatter moles.
• Complete removal, where the entire lesion is surgically removed. Your surgeon will remove the lesion and some of the tissue around it and you may need stitches afterwards. This is a technique used for larger moles or for lesions which are suspected to be cancerous.
• Cryotherapy, also known as freezing,   involves freezing off the lesion with liquid nitrogen. This treatment can be used to remove warts, skin tags and keratosis.