Sun & Skin Medical Centre is an accredited skin clinic offering skin cancer surgery, located on in Mount Eliza on Melbourne’s beautiful Mornington Peninsula. Our team of qualified and experienced doctors offer patients the highest standard of care for their skin concerns. Our clinic is proud to provide patients with access to the latest technologies and treatments for their skin concerns, as well as skin cancer surgery options.

At Sun & Skin Medical Centre, our personalised care begins with full body skin checks and mole mapping for diagnosis and ongoing monitoring, followed by any required treatment -including skin cancer surgery- and follow-up of each case for our patients’ peace of mind.

Following your mole map or skin check, your skin doctor may recommend that a biopsy be taken. A biopsy is a type of minor skin cancer surgery, whereby a sample of tissue is removed from the area of interest and sent off to a pathology lab for analysis. The lab will be able to identify whether a suspicious lesion is benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). This result is reported to your doctor, who will then contact you with their treatment recommendations if required, or perhaps to suggest ongoing monitoring of the skin lesion.

There are two types of biopsy that are typically performed in our clinic, under local anaesthetic. A shave biopsy and a punch biopsy. Shave biopsies allow for collection of a shave sample of the skin lesion; the wound is then dressed and no suturing is involved. Punch biopsies collect a small sample of the skin lesion and may vary in size. Sometimes a suture is required in order to give the best possible cosmetic outcome.

More of a skin cancer treatment rather than a skin cancer surgery Melbourne patients can access cryotherapy treatment for their skin lesions at Sun & Skin Medical Centre. Cryotherapy is also known as liquid nitrogen treatment, or dry ice treatment. The time and the frequency of the application required will depend on the type of skin lesion. Cryotherapy can be useful for benign skin lesions such as warts, some pre-malignant lesions, and superficial early skin cancers.

Your doctor will be able to advise whether cryotherapy is a suitable skin cancer treatment for your skin.

Sun & Skin Medical Centre offers skin cancer surgery Mt Eliza locals can conveniently access, within our clinic. In this type of skin cancer surgery, local anaesthetic is applied and the entire skin lesion is removed, including the appropriate margins in accordance with the latest guidelines on skin cancer surgery and management. There are several techniques that your doctor may use in order to excise (remove) the skin lesion and then close it. This is dependent on the location of the lesion, the size of the lesion, and the amount of surrounding tissue that may need to be removed.

When performing skin cancer surgery excisions, your doctor may use one of the following types of wound closure:

• Direct closure: The wound is closed directly, side by side.
• Flap: Depending on the size and position of your skin lesion, if your doctor feels that a flap closure is most appropriate, they will discuss the types of flaps that are possible. When using a flap, the wound is closed by mobilising the skin that is in the surrounding area, without completely cutting that skin off. This is achieved by loosening or rotating skin in the neighbouring area and using it to cover the wound. This technique requires a particular intricate skill set, which our experienced doctors at Sun & Skin Medical Centre confidently provide to our patients, in order to achieve the best possible cosmetic outcome.
• Skin graft: in some cases, direct closure of a wound is not possible. In these instances, skin from a distant area can be removed and used to cover the entire wound area. There are two types of skin graft. Full thickness skin grafts are used for small areas, with the full thickness of skin being used. For larger woung areas, partial or split thickness skin grafts are commonly used, whereby a very thin layer from the donor area is used to cover the wound.

Prior to commencing your skin cancer surgery, your doctor will discuss the possibilities for excision and wound closure with you, and you will have the opportunity to ask any questions regarding the procedure that you may have.

If you would like to make an appointment for a full skin check, mole mapping, or perhaps you require skin cancer surgery Mount Eliza clinic, Sun & Skin Medical Centre can help. Our team of qualified and experienced doctors offers consultation times from Monday to Saturday. Appointments can be made by telephoning our clinic, or alternatively you may book using our online system at your convenience. No referral is necessary.