[Dermatologic surgery - the surgical mainstay of dermatology].

Dermatologic surgery represents the surgical mainstay of the medical-surgical specialty of dermatology. The steep increase in incidence of skin cancer impressively raised the demand for competent dermatological surgery. Skin cancer is a plausible example to demonstrate that dermatology deserves a leading role in the diagnosis, differential indication and conduction of conservative, semi-invasive and surgical treatment as well as in the cooperation with the plastic reconstructive specialties. Through the last two decades, dermatological surgery has set valuable impulses in micrographic surgery of skin cancer, refinement of local anesthesia, nail surgery, wound and scar treatment, cutaneous laser surgery and sentinel node biopsy in cutaneous malignant melanoma.