Mohs Surgery

The superior treatment option for most skin cancers.

Mohs micrographic surgery offers the highest cure rate of any treatment for non-melanoma skin cancer while also minimizing the removal of surrounding healthy skin and leaving the smallest wound or scar possible.

What Is Mohs Surgery?

The procedure was developed in the 1930s by a general surgeon, Dr. Frederic Mohs at the University of Wisconsin and is now practiced throughout the world as the gold standard in skin cancer treatment. This method involves micrographic surgery performed in stages to decrease the likelihood of missing any cancer cells not visible to the naked eye and minimize larger incisions that remove healthy skin leaving a larger scar.

What To Expect

Mohs surgery is an outpatient procedure typically performed with only local anesthesia. The duration of the surgery depends on a variety of factors including the size of the tumor, the aggressiveness of the tumor, the location of the tumor, the number of additional layers needing removal, and the necessary reconstruction.

Plan on reserving the day for your surgery, since it is difficult to know how long the surgery will last.

The surgeon will prep the area, remove the tumor, and then spend 30-60 minutes analyzing the tissue to see if any additional areas need to be removed. If so, the surgeon will remove additional areas and examine the tissue again.

This will continue until all cancer-affected areas are removed.

When all the cancer is removed, the surgeon will reconstruct the area as necessary

After Mohs Surgery

The surgeon will dress the wound and provide care instructions. This may include a topical ointment, medication or special care instructions to reduce the risk of infection.