Skin tumour surgery in primary care: do general practitioners need to improve their surgical skills?

Background: Due to a rapid increase in the incidence of skin cancer, it seems inevitable that general practitioners (GPs) will play a larger role in skin cancer care.

Objectives: To assess surgical procedures used by GPs in skin tumour management.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study of 1,898 pathology reports of skin tumours excised by GPs in 2009.

Results: In 22.9% no diagnosis was provided on the application form. Mostly, once-off excisions (no preceding biopsy) were performed, 7% of the excised lesions were malignant, and 35% of incisions were incomplete. Excisions in the face and neck region were incomplete in 65.4%; 22% of melanomas were biopsied or shaved.

Conclusion: This study underlines the difficulties in skin tumour management in primary care. To stimulate adequate resource use, the number of excisions of benign lesions could be lowered, and pretreatment biopsy in non-melanoma skin cancer management should be encouraged. GPs should be aware of their limitations and consider referral of high-risk malignancies.