Community Based Surgery

At Blackwater Medical we offer a variety of surgical procedures.

Ingrown toenail surgery:

An ingrown toenail can be a very painful condition. The procedure involves cutting down the side of the nail and making the toenail smaller so it does not grow back ingrown. This is completed under local anaesthesia so you will not feel anything during the procedure. We can decide to use a chemical call phenol that destroys the nail matrix in the hope that the nail removed will not grow back. This procedure usually takes 45mins.

On the day of your procedure please
1.Bring flip flops or other open type shoes
2.Have someone to drive you home

Ingrown toenail

Biopsy

There are different types of biopsies:

Community Based Surgery - Blackwater Medical

1. Punch Biopsy

Here the skin is anaesthetised and a circular scalpel is inserted into the skin to take a selection of all layers of the skin. The sample is sent to the laboratory at CUH for histopathology so we can tell what the issue with the skin is. It usually takes 15 minutes. The skin may or may not be closed with a suture.

2. Shave Biopsy

Here the lesion on your skin will be superficial and a blade is used to shave it off.

3. Excisional Biopsy

Here the whole lesion is removed with usually 2mm margins this is usually for a skin cancer diagnosis and aids the laboratory making a full diagnosis.

Skin biopsy