Skin Cancer & Melanoma

Skin cancer is one of the fastest rising of all cancers in the Western World over the past 10 years. Thankfully we have tried to keep pace with the disease and diagnostic, staging and treatment modalities have changed significantly over the past decade. We now have access to the most advanced diagnostics including nuclear medicine SPECT-CT for melanoma and rapid turnaround cytopathology and histology to get results to patients faster than ever before.

Southampton hosts a leading multi-disciplinary skin cancer team that I am proud to be part of. Patients are informed and supported by specialist nurses and clinicians alike.

I specialise in removal of skin cancers and facial reconstruction. The aim is to minimise the functional and aesthetic impact of the surgery. Many different techniques are employed and each patient requires a bespoke solution according to their individual circumstances.

Together with my colleagues we also run a cadaveric dissection masterclass for consultants and specialists to learn the latest reconstructive techniques. I sub-specialise in nose reconstruction which requires its own special techniques of repair using cartilage grafts and tissue from different sites to obtain a natural looking repair.

"The incidence of melanoma has increased by 45% over the past 10 years" Cancer Research UK Statistics

Many surgical techniques are used in facial reconstruction. Here are just a few of them. Sometimes we have to invent entirely new ways of reconstructing parts of the face!

Skin grafts

Either a full thickness or split thickness skin graft is harvested and placed into a wound to help it heal

Local Skin Flaps

Tissue from adjacent to the wound is used to reconstruct the defect

Pedicled Flaps

Tissue is mobilised to reconstruct a defect but left attached at the base and this is then divided a few weeks later after the tissue has "taken"

Free Flaps

This is complex microvascular surgery and involves reconstructing larger or more difficult defects