Rapid section diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma - a speciality of the Karlsruhe Dermatological Clinic

There are two different approaches to basal cell carcinoma surgery at the Karlsruhe Department of Dermatology, which differ primarily in the type of micrographically controlled histological processing of the tumours. Rapid sectioning, which is carried out in-house at the dermatological clinic, is used for basal cell carcinomas smaller than 5 cm(2), enables tissue-conserving surgery and saves patients long waiting times until they receive the histological result. The rapid embedding procedure is used for basal cell carcinomas larger than 5 cm(2) and tumours that have not previously been histologically confirmed. Together with the pathological institute, the excised tumours are histologically processed until the following day so that a targeted re-excision or wound closure can take place the following day.