Will Ointment Heal My Non-Healing Facial Wound?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I hope you may help me as I have been trying to find an answer for my situation for months now.

As you can see by my attached photo, at the corner of my eye I had a raisedbump. Over a period of time I had scratched it to try and remove, now it will not heal over. It develops a scab and after several days the scab falls off when washing. It leaves a small hollow where the scab was; the tissue is a yellowish colour and slightly grainy looking. No infection, odor, or bleeding. In a day the area starts to heal over again and develops a new blood clot covering, but no skin covering.

My local doctor wants to take a biopsy which I am worried it make make matters worse. I live in the countryside and to see a specialist it of great trouble to do. You mention the A & D ointment and I wonder if that will help me in developing new skin tissue.

Any help you can give me would be extremely wonderful.

A:This problem requires expert medical attention and the biopsy would be the first place to start. When you have a non-healing wound in the face, which is rare to occur due to the superb blood supply of the face, you have to think about a medical reason for it. Ruling out basal cell carcinoma would be the first important problem to exclude. Either way this requires a surgical solution not a topical ointment to resolve.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Plastic Surgeon