Fletcher Allen, a Vermont university hospital and medical center, serves all of
Vermont and the northern New York region. Located in Burlington, Fletcher Allen is a regional, academic healthcare center and teaching hospital in alliance with the University of Vermont.
Dermatology Services
Fletcher Allen offers a full range of services for care of the skin, hair and nails, including:
- General medical dermatology
- Skin cancer surgery
- Dermatological surgery
- Laser surgery for port-wine stains, telangiectasias, warts, tattoo removal, laser resurfacing and other cosmetic issues
- Treatment for sun damage
- Occupational dermatology
- Chemotherapy
- Ablative laser
- Collagen injections
- Chemical peels
Special Areas of Expertise
As a university medical center, our physicians also pursue research in their roles as researchers at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. This means your doctor has the latest knowledge. Due to this work, our dermatologists have specific expertise in the following areas:
- Skin cancer
- Male pattern baldness
- Acne
- Leg ulcer therapy
- Psoriasis
- Atopic eczema
- Skin substitutes in wound-healing
Mohs Surgery
Mohs surgery or Mohs microscopically controlled excision is a specialized form of surgery used for the removal of skin cancers -- mainly basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas. Mohs surgery has come to be recognized as the standard of care for the removal of recurrent cutaneous carcinomas and primary carcinomas in difficult anatomic locations, particularly the face.
Mohs surgery is a specialized way of performing tumor excision with frozen section margins. Mohs' greatest contribution was the idea that by removing serial horizontal sections of tissue and orienting them properly, all deep and lateral margins could be simultaneously examined and carefully mappe dout.
The surgical excision thus proceeds in stages until no residual tumor is observed at any margin. With standard frozen sections only a few samples of the deep and lateral margins are examined. Because a greater attention is paid to all margins, the cure rate with Mohs surgery is the highest of any method of removal of cutaneous carcinoma and approaches 98 to 99%.
An added advantage of Mohs surgery is that an arbitrary margin of normal tissue is not sacrificed at the time of tumor removal. The procedure spares normal tissue, making reconstruction easier to accomplish.
