Mohs micrographic surgery is the most advanced, precise, and effective treatment for a variety of skin cancers. With the Mohs technique, the surgeon can precisely identify and remove an entire tumor while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue intact and unharmed.
The Mohs procedure involves surgically removing a skin cancer layer by layer and examining the tissue under a microscope until healthy, cancer-free tissue around the tumor is reached (called clear margins). Because the Mohs surgeon is specially trained as a cancer surgeon, pathologist, and reconstructive surgeon, Mohs surgery has the highest success rate of all treatments for skin cancer – up to 99%.
Mohs surgery is unique and so effective because of the way the removed tissue is microscopically examined, evaluating 100% of the surgical margins at the time of the procedure. The pathologic interpretation of the tissue margins is done on site by the Mohs surgeon, who is specially trained in the reading of these slides and is best able to correlate any microscopic findings with the surgical site on the patient.
Advantages of Mohs surgery include:
- Ensuring complete cancer removal during surgery, virtually eliminating the chance of the cancer growing back
- Minimizing the amount of healthy tissue lost
- Maximizing the functional and cosmetic outcome resulting from surgery
- Repairing the site of the cancer the same day the cancer is removed, in most cases
Our Mohs surgeon, Dr. Tanya R. Humphreys, provides exceptional care in the treatment of skin cancers via Mohs surgery, as well as other techniques. In addition, she performs the removal of an extensive variety of other skin lesions (moles, cysts, lipomas, keloids) and performs scar revisions, earlobe repairs and other aesthetic procedures as well. Learn more about Dr. Humphreys here.