What are some common skin and soft tissue complications?
You might not think of it as an organ, but your skin is the largest of all the organs in your body. While its primary purpose is protecting your organs, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves from damage from the outside, it can develop problems of its own.
Florida Lakes Surgical frequently diagnoses and treats some of the most common skin and soft tissue issues. Some come from direct, traumatic damage, while others develop over time. They include:
Wounds
Wounds are injuries affecting your skin and soft tissue, which often result in lots of bleeding and scabbing. Different types include cuts and punctures.
Lipomas and cysts
A lipoma is a tumor of fatty tissue within your skin and the soft tissue directly below it. A cyst is a sac of fluid or air within your soft tissue. While they’re often unattractive, cysts are not cancerous, and treatment for them may be optional.
Skin cancer
Skin cancer usually develops if you spend a lot of time in the sun or it’s exposed to other ultraviolet light sources, like tanning booths. Skin cancers can be benign or malignant. If your cancerous lesion is malignant, it means cancer can spread to other areas of your body.
How are skin and soft tissue complications diagnosed?
In many cases, the Florida Lakes Surgical team can diagnose a skin or soft tissue complication by observing it. However, if the lesion or feature looks like it may be cancerous, they’ll need to perform additional testing, such as biopsy.
During a biopsy, your provider removes a small section of tissue from the lesion or lump. They send the sample to a laboratory where they can examine and test it for signs of cancer. If it’s cancerous, the biopsy can give them additional valuable information about its type and malignancy.
What are my skin and soft tissue treatment options?
Florida Lakes Surgical provides individualized care for many types of skin and soft-tissue complications. They describe the best course of treatment to you and answer your questions as they guide you through the process.
Complex wounds are chronic, don’t heal well, or are difficult to treat, like ulcers and bedsores. Complex wound care involves dressings, wound debridement, oxygen therapy, and surgical repair to help you avoid infections and other complications.
Surgical repair for complex wounds may be necessary. To replace missing skin from either an injury or after the surgical removal of skin cancer, a lipoma, or a cyst, your surgeon might recommend a skin or soft tissue graft.
Your surgeon selects a healthy portion of skin and tissue, like your thigh or abdomen, and secures it over the open area with sutures, staples, or dressings. Then, they wait for your skin to integrate with the graft as it heals.
A skin graft requires extensive aftercare, and Florida Lakes Surgical monitors you throughout the process.
Schedule your appointment for skin or soft tissue complications by phone or book online today.
