[Skin check-up--who and when?].

The skin is easy to access and therefore this organ is also an important diagnostic tool for the general practitioner to establish a systemic and complex disease. In addition skin cancer is the most prevalent malignancy and therefore non-dermatologists should be able to make the diagnosis of an early skin cancer. It is recommended to perform a whole body examination in all first visits. With experience a whole skin check lasts no longer than five minutes. It is important to recognise patients at risk for skin malignancies because they clearly profit from a regular screening. Patients with atypical moles or with familial melanoma syndrome and patients who already had malignant melanoma should get a yearly skin examination performed by a trained expert. Patients who had basal cell carcinoma run an almost 50% risk to produce a second basal cell carcinoma within three to five years and therefore they are good candidates for a screening at a regular base. The number of organ transplanted people is rising dramatically. In general these patients are under marked immunosuppression and therefore they often develop malignancies of the skin. In our Department such patients receive at least one dermatological visit a year.