Mohs micrographic surgery is a surgical technique that can be used to remove certain kinds of growth from your skin.
What Can Mohs Micrographic Surgery Be Used to Treat?
Your dermatologist might recommend Mohs surgery to treat:
- Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC)
- Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)
- Some other forms of skin cancer
When is Mohs Surgery Recommended?
There are some important benefits to Mohs micrographic surgery that might make it a good option for you in certain situations:
- Ideal for the head and neck as there is less risk of scarring than with other removal methods
- Can ensure that infiltrative BCCs are removed completely when other methods might miss the difficult to see edges
- Removes as little healthy skin as possible, so good for larger tumours when it’s important to minimise the size of the wound
- Can get rid of any remaining tissue from incomplete removal procedures
How Does Mohs Surgery Work?
The Mohs micrographic surgery procedure involves:
- Marking the visible skin cancer
- Numbing the area with local anaesthetic
- Removing a thin layer of tissue including the visible cancer
- Checking the tissue under a microscope to see where the cancer cells were located
- Removing another layer of tissue from the areas where the cancer was detected
- Checking for cancer cells in the next layer
- Repeating the process until no cancer cells are seen in the last removed layer
The Mohs surgery technique ensures that all of the cancer cells are removed while taking as little healthy skin as possible.
