Office dermatologic surgery

Clinic-based dermatologic surgery is performed in the office or clinic of a clinician. Any clinician having reasonable knowledge and confidence can perform the surgery. Any clinician who has a routine clinical practice as a physician can later modify his or her practice to perform dermatologic surgery after acquiring sufficient knowledge and skills. Here, my advice is to have full inclination and intention to do so.

A clinician or practitioner from any faculty of medicine can develop and establish an office dermatologic surgery. Following are some of my suggestions before developing this practice:

Total inclination and devotion
Sufficient space in clinic to devote to this activity
Minimum requirements of minor operating theater
Quiet and clean surroundings
Sufficient operating skills
Reasonably trained staff
Investment in reasonably good and advanced surgical technology considering the array of various dermatological conditions one needs to deal with

I will next expand on these suggestions.

Total inclination and devotion. Dermatologic surgery on facial or bodily skin requires good understanding of the histopathology of the relevant skin lesions to be tackled. In today’s world, cosmesis is of primary concern, hence all such surgeries need to be given sufficient time and care for best results. Best results will be delivered only with total inclination and devotion. One should avoid any interruption or disturbance of phone calls or other activities of the clinic.

Sufficient space in clinic. Office-based dermatologic surgery requires a minimum of 140 square feet floor area. It is always desirable to have a separate room for this area rather than assigning a small cubicle in a large consulting room.

Minimum requirements of minor operating theater.1 The room delegated for dermatologic surgery should be properly designed and equipped for the job (Figure 2.1). The requirements are described in brief next: