Pre-operative assesment

Authors: Frederik Gulmark Hansen, med.stud. and Magnus Balslev Avnstorp, MD

For region-specific procedures and cases, please choose the region in the menu to the left. This chapter gives you an overview and general guidelines for excisions of facial tumors.

Patient presentation

Anamnesis:

• Age, gender
• Disposition of skin tumors
• Other diseases
• Sun exposure
• Medicine
• Evolving of the tumor: timeframe, bleeding, pain etc.

Physical Examination

Assessment of skin and lymph nodes on scalp, face and neck.
Tumor description: 

• Location
• Size
• distance to important structures i.e. the eyelid or lip
• suspicion of deep infiltration in the subdermal complex (adhesion to underlying structures)

Preoperative Work-Up and Preparation for Surgery

• Well described tumor location and size (see above)
• Pausation of blood thinning medicine and all natural, herbal medicine including omega-3 fish oil
• Consider if the surgery should be performed in general or local anesthesia

Preoperative Information

Preoerative information should always include:

• Risk of infection
• Bleeding
• Scars and their location (including keloid)
• Pain
• Facial nerve damage with potential paralysis (if relevant)
• Stretching (deformation) of important structures i.e. eyelid ectropion
• Risk of tumor recurrence