Chemosurgery for Facial Neoplasms

The term "chemosurgery" was coined to designate a method by which accessible cancers may be excised under complete microscopic control. The chemosurgical technique consists of three essential steps: (1) application of a zinc chloride paste to produce fixation in situ, (2) excision of a layer of the chemically fixed tissue and (3) microscopic scanning of the undersurface of the excised layer by the systematic use of frozen sections. The process is repeated in the cancerous areas until a cancer-free plane is reached. Because the microscopic control permits selective removal of "silent" outgrowths from the main cancerous mass the method achieves unprecedented reliability without the need to sacrifice an extra margin of normal tissue.