{"id":59143,"date":"2012-04-25T09:22:44","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T13:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=59143"},"modified":"2014-01-17T08:23:12","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T13:23:12","slug":"experienced-surgeon-is-crucial-when-removing-skin-cancer-from-the-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/04\/experienced-surgeon-is-crucial-when-removing-skin-cancer-from-the-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Experienced Surgeon Is Crucial When Removing Skin Cancer from the Face"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-bottom: 18px\">[yframe url=&#8217;http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l0XuFzgTsR4&amp;feature=youtu.be&#8217;]<\/div>\n<p>When Barbara Newsheller, an avid tennis player most of her life, developed a small, red mark on her nose, she didn\u2019t pay much attention to it. But when her young granddaughter expressed concern, she made an appointment to see UConn dermatologist <a href=\"http:\/\/uconndocs.uchc.edu\/Home\/Physician?profileId=Lu-Jun\">Dr. Jun Lu<\/a>, who immediately knew the mark was suspicious.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we did the biopsy, it did turn out to be a pretty good size basal carcinoma,\u201d explains Lu.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe called and said we have to discuss your treatment because it is malignant. And of course, I panicked,\u201d says Newsheller. \u201cAll I could think of is, my God, I\u2019m going to lose my nose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lu recommended <a href=\"http:\/\/dermatology.uchc.edu\/patientcare\/mohs.html\">Mohs micrographic surgery<\/a> with Dr. Omar Ibrahimi, a fellowship trained Mohs surgeon and a member of the American College of Mohs surgery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have a skin cancer on the face, it\u2019s like they say in real estate \u2013 location, location, location,\u201d says Ibrahimi. \u201cYou want a procedure that spares as much of the normal tissue as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mohs surgery removes the cancer one layer at a time and each layer is closely examined under a microscope while the patient waits. This allows a minimal amount of tissue to be removed while ensuring complete removal of all the cancer cells. But Barbara\u2019s cancer was in a difficult area where there isn\u2019t a lot of loose skin to use for reconstruction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe performed something called a rhombic flap, where we made an incision down her smile line and then moved a portion of her cheek over to cover the defect,\u201d explains Ibrahimi. \u201cHer scar is hidden within her smile line and then along the junction between her nose and her cheek, and that\u2019s a nice place to hide incisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Newsheller is extremely pleased with the results and highly recommends being treated at UConn, an academic medical center. \u201cThey have to be up to date on all procedures that are available. There is the research that I think is dynamite. If you don\u2019t have research, you can\u2019t move forward. For all of those reasons, that is why I like UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Follow\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uchc.edu\">UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uconnhealthcenter\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uconnhealth\">Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/uconnhealth\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mohs micrographic surgery, available at the Health Center, removes the cancer one layer at a time, sparing tissue while ensuring complete removal of cancer cells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":59151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1,70],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-59143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized","category-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 03:55:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59143"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88490,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59143\/revisions\/88490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/59151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59143"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=59143"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=59143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}