Dermoscopy

Der­mo­sco­py is an exami­na­ti­on method in which skin lesi­ons are view­ed under magni­fi­ca­ti­on using a spe­cial hand­held lens and light source. It reve­als struc­tures and colour pat­terns beneath the skin sur­face that can­not be seen with the naked eye.

Appli­ca­ti­on

Its main use is asses­sing pig­men­ted lesi­ons, hel­ping to distin­gu­ish an ear­ly mela­n­o­ma from a harm­less mole. Non-mela­n­o­ma skin can­cer, warts, vas­cu­lar lesi­ons and hair and scalp con­di­ti­ons can also be asses­sed more pre­cis­e­ly. The exami­na­ti­on is pain­less and takes only a few minu­tes. In digi­tal der­mo­sco­py, images are stored and com­pared at later check-ups.

Good to know

How infor­ma­ti­ve it is depends hea­vi­ly on the exami­ning doc­tor’s expe­ri­ence. Whe­re fin­dings are unclear, only a tis­sue exami­na­ti­on after rem­oval pro­vi­des cer­tain­ty. Peo­p­le with many moles, fair skin or a fami­ly histo­ry of skin can­cer bene­fit par­ti­cu­lar­ly from regu­lar check-ups.

Matching tre­at­ment at Swiss Der­ma Cli­nic: Mole checks