Abstract
Background: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) recurrence is extremely infrequently documented after complete surgical excision. There are well-studied risk factors for this undesirable consequence like localized erythema, induration, or ulceration at the site of surgical excision of the initial lesion of BCCs.
Material and Methods: According to the histopathology report, all patients whose primary BCCs were removed with free surgical margins between January 2018 and December 2021 were included in the current study. The patient's age, sex, sun exposure, tumor site, size, clinical diagnosis, histopathological variant of primary lesion, least free margin distance of the original lesion and recurrence time were all noted in the medical records that were obtained.
Result: Sixty patients including 30 males and 30 females, among them, 56.7% lived in rural areas, compared to 43.3% who came from urban. Furthermore, 45% of patients were housewives and the majority of patients were illiterate (70%). 20% of patients had hypertension, diabetes mellitus and ischemic heart disease. 15% had hypertension, diabetes mellitus, 10% only had hypertension, 31.7% had no disease and 25% of participants experienced bleeding, 36.7% had ulcers and only 6.7% experienced itching. Regarding previous therapy for BCC before surgical excision, 15% of patients received 5FU and peeling solution for each of them. Only 8.3% of patients used cryotherapy, 10% of patients used cautery, 5% of patients received CO2 laser, only one patient (1.7%) had BCC previously treated before surgical excision and recurred.
Conclusion: All recurrent BCCs were surgically removed with margins less than 4 mm. The preferred surgical treatment for basal cell carcinoma is with sparing margins more than 4 mm which may be individualized to the patients in order to lower recurrence rates
