Microscopically controlled surgery was developed by Dr. F. Mohs in the 1940s as a precise method of treating certain cancers. The technique has been extensively refined in subsequent years, and its popularity has increased dramatically during the last decade.
The Mohs technique combines surgical removal of the skin cancer with immediate microscopic examination of the removed tissue in order to identify any residual cancerous tissue.
The main goal of Mohs surgery is to remove your skin cancer as completely as possible and to prevent cancer recurrence. Although the cure rate is not 100 percent, Mohs surgery offers the highest cure rate of any procedure available in the treatment of skin cancer. The overwhelming majority of patients never require further treatment.
There are several situations in which Mohs surgery is appropriate:
- When the tumor occurs in an area of the body (e.g., the nose, ear, scalp, hand, or genitalia) where it is not effectively curable by other treatment methods
- When the tumor is located on a structure that is so important that one wishes to remove only the diseased tissue and spare as much of the normal skin as possible (e.g., the nose, eyelid, or ear).
- When the cancer has been previously treated and has come back
- When the margin or extent of the tumor cannot easily be defined by visual inspection
Mohs surgery not only has a higher cure rate than any other treatment method, but also creates the smallest possible surgical wound, resulting in the best final cosmetic result.
Unlike other methods of treatment, Mohs surgery does not rely on surface inspection to judge the extent of the skin cancer. What one sees on the surface may only be “the tip of the iceberg.”
If the tumor is not well defined, if it blends into the normal skin, or if it is mixed with scar tissue from a previous operation, a surgeon using conventional treatment techniques might either remove too little tissue and leave tumor behind, causing tumor recurrence, or overcompensate and remove too much tissue, producing unacceptable scarring.
Mohs surgery, using microscopic control, allows the surgeon to trace out the extent of the tumor and remove only diseased tissue.
Read more about Mohs surgery:
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