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My Experience with the ACSI Fellowship Program at CUTIS Institute of Dermatology
Address for correspondence: Shazia Jeelani, House No. E-7, Cooperative Colony Peerbagh, I. G. Road, Srinagar 190014, Jammu and Kashmir, India. E-mail: shazia46@gmail.com
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This article was originally published by Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd and was migrated to Scientific Scholar after the change of Publisher.
I am writing this commentary about my Association of Cutaneous Surgeons (India) (ACSI) fellowship in dermatosurgery that I have recently concluded at the Cutis Institute of Dermatology, Srinagar, J&K, India. I am thankful to the ACSI for providing me this opportunity to learn dermatosurgery and aesthetic dermatology hands on from my teacher.
I joined the Cutis Institute of Dermatology as a fellow on November 1, 2017. The journey so far has been wonderful. I had worked under Dr. Imran Majid previously as a postgraduate student also. No doubt he is a wonderful person and a teacher par excellence. During my fellowship at Cutis, my experiences were worth remembering for life. Our teaching at Cutis was a structured one, so as to have hands-on training in all the spheres of lasers, dermatosurgery, and aesthetics. The dedication of my mentor together with the facilities provided at Cutis helped to carve a better dermatosurgeon and cosmetologist out of me.
During our training at Cutis, I earned first-hand experience of lasers in a diverse group of population. The Linscan 810 (German Medical Engineering, Erlangen, Germany) diode laser for laser hair removal is best suited for the skin type in this part of the country where people have skin type II–IV. Adjusting the treatment parameters for the individual population was learned in a stepwise manner.
I learned the use of carbon dioxide fractional laser resurfacing in both ablative and nonablative modes for treating a variety of dermatological conditions—scarring, removal of small benign lesions of skin-acquired melanocytic nevus, sebaceous nevus, etc. The use of fractional laser for the transepidermal delivery of drugs is a novel method and was used regularly for the treatment of various dermatological diseases. The pigmented epidermal and dermal lesions were treated by the use of Q-switched Nd-YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) laser. Intense pulsed light was used to treat certain skin conditions such as telangiectasia in the patients with rosacea and vascular lesions.
At Cutis, aesthetic dermatology included regular Botox (Allergan, Irvine, CA) injections and microdermabrasion to the specific patient population. Platlet rich plasma for androgenetic alopecia was also done regularly.
If one is at the Cutis Institute of Dermatology, the thing that will never be missed are the lessons in vitiligo surgery by the master himself. It is one of the finest centers for vitiligo surgeries not only in India but also recognized worldwide. Ultrathin skin grafting, smash grafting, and miniature punch grafting were performed regularly. Besides the vitiligo surgeries, other dermatosurgeries were performed during my tenure at Cutis. Hair restoration surgery by follicular unit extraction was also performed. Cryosurgeries and other minor dermatological procedures were also performed regularly.
My fellowship has ended at the Cutis Institute of Dermatology, but Cutis has become a family for me and I have become a part of Cutis family. So, this won’t end here. My learning at Cutis continues at each passing day.
