Managing bleeding malignant skin lesions.

Malignant skin lesions can bleed as a result of the tumour itself or after the application of inappropriate dressings. Vivien McMurray discusses some of the measures that can be taken to control light bleeding, together with other methods that should be considered when profuse bleeding occurs.

Managing patients with fungating malignant wounds.

Fungating malignant wounds are caused by the infiltration of the skin and its supporting blood and lymph vessels by a local tumour, or result from metastatic spread from a primary tumour. Without treatment, the fungation has the potential to extend and cause massive damage to the wound site, through a combination of proliferative growth, loss of vascularity and ulceration (Grocott, 1999).