RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Despite the enormous progress in dermatosurgery during the last 35 years,this achievement is not always appropriately acknowledged by other surgical specialties. We outline the significance of dermatosurgery by looking at the development of dermatological operations at the Department of Dermatology,University of Munich/Hospital of Munich Thalkirchner Strasse. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data were collected and analyzed from surgery records, tables and from the SAP ISH-Med.The survey covered the time frame from 1971 to 2006. RESULTS: There were 101,103 inpatient operations. The number of operations per year increased steadily,especially the number of medium-sized and large operations. A special domain of dermatosurgery is the sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with malignant melanoma. In the last years, there was a continuous increase of patients in whom more than one tumor had to be excised. The percentage of patients undergoing dermatosurgery was constant at 46% of all inpatients. CONCLUSIONS: The surgical therapy of skin tumors is the most important part of inpatient treatment of dermatology patients. The development of dermatosurgery shows that due to the increase of skin tumors and the opening of new fields of activity (for example the removal of sentinel lymph nodes) there is a growing demand for dermatological surgeons. Solid training and competent representation in dermatology and attention to our interactions with other surgical specialties will help guarantee optimal patient care in the future.