“…well established and known for excellence.”
Dermatology: Micro Surgery
San Rafael
Imagine having a type of cancer requiring surgery that will leave your face seriously disfigured. For certain complicated facial skin cancers, that is the reality. Ideally, plastic surgery repairs the defect as soon as the tumor is removed.
“Patients are understandably apprehensive,” says Patrick Hybarger, MD, Chief of Kaiser Permanente’s Micrographic Surgical Division in San Rafael. “They may lose a significant part of their nose or lips." Thanks to a multidisciplinary team approach developed by Dr. Hybarger, surgical patients can receive plastic surgery almost immediately following potentially disfiguring tumor removal.
Dr. Hybarger also developed a sophisticated statistical record to help patients understand the likely outcomes of their surgeries. The database is one of the best maintained in the country, containing 20 years of data on more than 10,000 patients, from Fresno to Oregon.
"If a patient comes in with basal cell carcinoma, I can tell them that we have a 99% cure rate. That can be very reassuring." Dr. Hybarger trained at UCSF and was a co-founder of the Micrographic Surgical Division. Well established and known for its excellence, the Division has been available to Northern California members since 1984. Patients are referred to the specialist most appropriate for the type and location of their type of skin cancer.
“Patients often come in and have already read about us on the Internet,” says Dr. Hybarger. “They’re comfortable knowing the care they receive here is outstanding.”