With all the wind and rain recently, we are very glad to be able to perform chemotherapy inside the hospital.
There are many different options for treating skin tumours depending on the type of tumour that is present, and the location of the tumour.
This patient has an advanced ocular sarcoid of a mixed type. The treatment being used is an emulsion of slow-release chemotherapy drug injected throughout the skin tumour.
I will explain in more detail, the use of spinal needles and local anaesthetic for this procedure:
Spinal needles-
Spinal needles are normally used for injecting fluid into the central nervous system. Here they are being used to prevent tumour cells from getting stuck inside the lumen of the needle when they introduced into the dense highly cellular tumour . The spinal needles have a central piece of metal that prevents the needle from becoming clogged up. When the central piece is removed, a tunnel is left for the chemotherapy treatment to be left in.
Local anaesthetic-
Local anaesthetic is used to ensure our patient cannot feel the surgical procedure. There are different types of anaesthetic, but they all work by preventing nerves that monitor pain from firing and sending messages to the brain that it is painful.