Chapter XXIX (3)

=Treatment.=--The most satisfactory treatment of a limited growth of this kind is _excision_, especially if this can be made at an early age. The resulting scar will be smaller, the healing more prompt, and the result in every way better. When excision seems impracticable _electrolysis_ should be employed, one or both poles of a galvanic battery of six to ten cells being connected with needles, which are inserted directly into the growth, and whose position is constantly changed, so that the coagulating effect of the electric current may be equably distributed throughout the growth. Occasionally the growth may be so shaped as to permit of _ligature_, and it is best employed either with or without the use of a needle, after which it may be excised or will slough off. This is essentially one method of treating external hemorrhoids. Methods by injection of coagulants are all open to serious objection, are hazardous, and should be abandoned. A port-wine mark may be sometimes treated by a tattooing process, which should, however, be practised with strict antiseptic precautions. Electrolysis may also be practised over a small area at a time. The more destructive method, by use of the cautery, is likely to leave scars almost as conspicuous as the original condition. Occasionally a lesion of this kind will be so shaped and placed as to justify excision with an autoplastic operation.