No abstract

No abstract

Dermatologists should be aware of these herbal products and their uses. Many of these products prescribed by alternative medicine physicians or purchased over the counter should be discontinued prior to dermatologic surgery to minimize the risk of surgical complications.

Poly-(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) is easy to inject intracutaneously and is well tolerated in the rat model. Short-term volume retention is good. Histopathology suggests a subclinical inflammatory reaction expected with implantation of a synthetic substance into the skin. Additional studies are necessary to investigate the continued persistence of the hydrogel and its long-term effects on surrounding tissue.

No abstract

An estimated 20% of all malignant cutaneous neoplasms are diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Chemotherapeutic wraps, or chemowraps, consist of application of topical 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) 5% cream along with occlusive zinc oxide and a compressive bandage (e.g., Unna boot). This treatment modality is often used as a less invasive option compared to surgery, especially in the presence of numerous SCCs. Cryotherapy, the use of liquid nitrogen gas, can be utilized to obliterate pre-malignant and malignant skin lesions. In this report, we present four cases in which females between the ages of 65 and 80 with multiple lower extremity SCCs were treated with cryotherapy prior to each chemowrap application, resulting in favorable clinical tumor improvement. Our observations indicate that cryotherapy may enhance the effectiveness of chemowrap treatment when used before each application. To our knowledge, the use of cryotherapy to synergistically enhance the efficacy of chemowraps has not yet been reported. We hypothesize that cryotherapy induces edema and first strips the outer, hyperkeratotic layers of skin, which facilitates deeper penetration of the 5-FU cream from chemowraps. Chemowraps may also relieve the pain associated with cryotherapy. Therefore, dual cryotherapy and chemowrap treatment may be considered to maximize skin penetration, thus minimizing the extent of surgical intervention in patients with a significant number of SCC lesions.

No abstract