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SATURDAYNovember 8RAPID FIRE
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Mariusz J.A. Sapijaszko Curettage and electrodessication continues to be an important therapeutic alternative for the treatment of benign and malignant skin conditions. Of all the options for the treatment of malignant conditions, ED&C is the least standardized and prone to individual modifications. The differences between physicians lie in the number of treatment cycles, the variability of applied pressure, the margins of “normal skin” treated, the amount of electrodessication applied and the post –op management. Furthermore, ED&C can be applied in conjunction with other treatment modalities such as surgery or topical immune response modifiers. ED&C is considered most appropriate in the treatment of benign conditions such as irritated seborrheic keratoses, pyogenic granulomas or molluscum contagiosum as well as malignant processes such as actinic keratoses, basal cell carcinomas as well as squamous cell carcinomas. Reported cure rates following ED&C of benign and malignant conditions vary considerably as the techniques is operator dependent. Practically speaking, the effectiveness of ED&C can be optimized by consideration of appropriate patient factors (patient selection, location of, and type of skin condition considered for treatment, exclusion of relative contraindications, individual outcome expectations and availability of appropriate post-op care) as well as physician factors (physician training and experience, comfort in treating lesions in certain anatomic sites, availability of equipment and knowledge of current treatment advances). ED&C represents one of the most commonly used procedures in dermatology. Alone or in combination with topical immune response modifiers, it represents an effective method of treatment of variety of skin conditions. Its efficacy is both patient/lesion selection and physician dependant. As such, appropriate training of future and current dermatologists in the use of this technique cannot be overemphasized. |